Supernova
by RavenWingDark
Summary: Nova the Eevee, who has been living in Professor Oak's lab her whole life, finds a friend in her trainer, Sam. Together they journey the Pokemon World winning badges and meet interesting Pokémon along the way like Gold, the fighting type Sandshrew and Missile, the shy Beedrill. Mix between Mystery Dungeon, normal Pokémon games and real life. Their journey will be long. T for blood.
1. Out the Doors

**Full Summary: Nova the shiny Eevee embarks on a Pokemon journey with her new trainer, Sam. Along the way, Nova learns how to train, win battles, make friends and simply enjoy herself. Sam and Nova are joined by two other trainers, Rae, Officer Jenny's ambitious, unconventional niece, and Kurt, the energetic craftsman turned explorer. Nova makes friends out of any unlikely Sandshrew-Gold, who seems to like Fighting moves better than his own Ground type ones and has a serious attitude. **

**Trust me when I say stick around, It'll be fun.**

**Note: **I do go back and fix work and improve dialogue as I learn and grow as an author. This chapter was written in 2011, when I was 14 and has been edited in 2013.

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><p><strong>PROLOGUE<strong>

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><p>My ears twitched with curiosity and I tried to nuzzle my face farther into the short uniform grass of my small enclosure. The naked overhead light was painful and disorienting for waking eyes, and looking directly at it resulted in blotches of color attacking my vision. I was in a familiar room. Too familiar, I lamented.<p>

The lab room was surrounded in machinery and a desk. In the middle of the lab was a small pen, small enclosure with metal rails about two feet high.

And I was in there. Ever since I stopped nursing and was taken from my mother and litter mates who were somewhere out in the enclosure, maybe already forgotten about me. My mother was a Leafeon belonging to the Professor, that was no mystery. I had never met my father and I knew for a fact he was not the Professor's Pokémon.

But I knew one thing, to him, I was not a normal Pokemon. And for him, that was a crime punishable by separation and constant research. I guessed it was my fur, which was different from my litter mates who all had deep brown and sunny cream coats. But I didn't think my colors were weird. I kinda liked them.

Maybe because it was the only fur I'd seen in over than a month. My fur was russet. And instead of cream, was what I had been told, mahogany brown.

Not like the town though. The color.

And instead of the brown eyes that my old friends and litter mates had, mine were a moss green. I had to wonder if I took after my father.

Usually when Professor Oak wasn't in the room with me, I was alone in silence, which I had hated it and whined and whimpered to fill the void of sound for hours. But then, slowly, I had gotten used to it. Silence, or blips or beeps, the Professor's heavy footsteps and his low voice.

Today was different though. I knew I had to find out what the source of the sound was. For the first time in months, the the door to the dark lab room I was in was ajar, letting a small streak of light into the otherwise blackened room. He must have been distracted. Anyway, it gave me just enough room that I could slide through. And maybe find a way back to my family.

And that meant scaling the fence. But if I threw a little common sense into the problem in addition to what strength I had, then maybe I could figure some way over it.

I remembered the saying my mom had told me before. Curiosity killed the cat. I hope fate knew I was an Eevee.

After scrambling a couple times and slipping and falling and passing the point I usually would have given up, I finally reached the summit of the fence and jumped down, promptly landing in a heap of chubby limbs and soft downy fur. When I was first put in the pen, I was less than half the size I am now. For two weeks, I tried everyday to scale that fence. Then I had given up.

_Finally, finally I did it. I'll never let him catch me again… _I told myself, looking back at the small holding pen with a degree of anger.

I pulled myself off the cold tile and squeezed through the normally sealed door. I was in a bright room. No artificial light. Sun. Real sunlight shining in from large windows in the ceiling. I smiled, blinking my eyes again the light.

My ears perked up as I heard something move. Maybe I wasn't alone in this room after all… I crept over to get a closer look from behind a small potted plant. On a metal table sat three small pokemon. I wanted to shout out and ask them to play but I was too nervous to consider it. I wasn't sure how well I would be able to communicate with them. I hadn't talked to another Pokemon in a long time.

They were standing stiffly, puffing their chests out. I recognized them as a Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. I followed their gaze. There stood a human. A small male human. He was looking each Pokemon carefully. All three looked very strong and healthy. I took a step forward then, promptly, a step back.

I didn't like humans. They kept you locked up. They hurt you. They tried to uncover things about yourself that you would never know. They liked to control and that didn't change. But that was Oak.

This boy looked innocent and naive. Like I was. I felt a calm feeling start to affect me. _This kid, he doesn't seem too bad. _I thought to myself. _He might be able to get me out of here!_

The boy saw me. He had auburn hair and hazel eyes. His skin was slightly tanned he looked to be almost five feet. Almost five times bigger than myself. Nevertheless, when he beckoned me with his hands and warm smile. After carefully assessing his body language and sensing no hostility, I slunk over to him.

"It's alright, buddy. I'm not gonna hurt ya," he said softly.

I held my breath and lowered my ears when he reached out his hand to pet me. His hand was slow but unafraid and when he stroked my cheek, I instinctively nuzzled his hand. His grin widened and I felt my heart lighten. I relished the foreign feeling of warmth against my fur.

A door opened and Professor Oak walked in. "Sam, have you picked your—" His eyes landed on me in his arms. I crouched and buried myself into the boy's lap. The boy protested and pulled me out. I glared at him furiously and started to struggle.

_Didn't he realize that I needed to hide? The guy was just going to make sure I never escaped again._

"Sam, how did you find that eevee?" He demanded, his voice lacking the cheeriness it had seconds ago. He grabbed me roughly from his hands. Sam looked ready to protest. I growled and tried scrambling out of Oak's arms. Sam stood up, clearly a little startled.

"Yes, I made my decision. I want the eevee please," he told the Professor, holding his arms out in front of him expectantly.

Professor Oak stiffened and his hold on my scruff and hind legs tightened. I knew that Oak's soft spot was new trainers because his grandson was going to get his first Pokemon in just a couple months.

"Now son," he tried to explain, "this eevee is very special example of the breed. Notice its roan coat. It isn't a shiny eevee either. That's really rare, but this is something I've never seen before. I have to find out what genes mutated the normal Eevee Ultra-Dominant coat color. And other than that, there are other things that need to be researched that I really can't get into. Though the Eevee does need field experience to delve any further, that will be taken care of by Gary."

"In two months?" Sam asked, trying a new approach. "And that won't hinder your research?"

"I might but, it's not something that can be changed," Oak shrugged slightly.

"What if another Professor figures it out before then, sir? Isn't two months is an awfully long time in the scientific field?" The auburn-haired boy asked innocently.

That got Oak, whose ever-curious mind wanted results, fast. "Alright then, m'boy, you may take the Eevee as long as in two months you bring it back for a couple of tests."

"But I'll be able to keep her."

"Absolutely, provided nothing ground-breaking shows up." Oak assured him with a smile. Sam tensed slightly. There was a risk for him in this deal. I whined lightly in worry. If he decided to take one of the other starters I would never see the outside of the lab. Sam's eyes met mine for a moment.

"I'll take Eevee." He said with an easy smile, as if the risk was nothing to him. Oak nodded setting me down. I carefully retreated to where Sam was as Oak pulled a piece of paper out of his notepad and scribbled furiously on it. I watched carefully from a safe distance. Then he handed it to Sam, who thanked him with exuberance as he received five Pokéballs, a Pokédex and the Ultra Ball that I had been caught in. He shoved the items in his bag.

With Sam giving the professor a final goodbye, we walked out of the lab for the last time.

_Sweet freedom._

Once the lab was out of view, we picked a shady tree to sit at and he began to read the list out loud. I ran my paws through the grass and admired the filtered sunlight through the leaves.

"Wash fur every other day with Silk Pedigree Eevee Shampoo. Do not let Eevee battle against Fire or Electric-types, as they might cause wear to her coat. Keep in Poké—" Sam read wide-eyed until I cut him off by ripping the paper from his hands and tearing it to tiny pieces. I watched it sail away in the early spring breeze with a sense of finality in my heart. I heard the chuckle of relief and humor from Sam, my new trainer, and the disappearing last traces of Professor Oak.

I had been wrong before.

_Now I was free._

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><p><strong><em>Please let me know what you think! :)<em>**


	2. Of Bugs, Mothers and Rabid Ratatta

**Okay, the excitement begins! Enjoy! I have 12 views on the first chapter so let's try to beat that!**

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><p>We stared at the horizon for a minute before he scooped me up in his arms and stood up. I protested loudly. My feet didn't want to leave this new earth.<p>

"You want to walk? Well okay, you'll have to keep up though." Sam smiled. I trotted up to him as he adjusted the straps of his backpack and started to walk. Soon we were at the entrance, or rather the exit of Pallet town. The boy standing near the path turned around to face us.

"Sam, I've told you a hundred times before. No Pokemon, no exit." I snorted and walked to Sam's side. He had tried to leave without a Pokémon before? That amused me. But now that I thought of it, would I really be that much better than no Pokemon at all? I had never fought a Pokémon before, save wrestling with my litter-mates a long time ago. The boy saw me and looked surprised.

"Professor Oak gave you an eevee?"

Sam grinned and his eyes lit up. "Yeah, Tony. And she's way cooler than your caterpie." Obviously Sam didn't like this boy.

I figured there was a good reason. I decided I didn't like the boy either when he gripped his Pokéball angrily and his face turned red.

"Oh yeah? You wanna bet?" The boy growled. Sam's eyes widened in surprise. He, much like me, was less than prepared for our first Pokemon battle. Thankfully the boy was interrupted by footsteps hurrying towards them.

"Sam! Sam!" A tall, attractive woman with bouncy red hair gushed. She ran at Sam with open arms ready to envelope him. Sam gave a squeak of surprise and cringed as she barreled into him. I looked on in confusion. Should I react hostily? The lady seemed to have good intentions...

"Sam we barely talked for more than ten minutes this morning! I won't see you for weeks!" The woman wailed, tears in her eyes.

"Mom I'll give you a call as soon as I get to Viridian!"

"Of course you will! But honey, those nasty forest Pokémon could hurt you!"

That lady just insulted Pokémon. My hackles rose but I held back a growl. The lady cared about Sam. Plus she was his mom.

Now I knew me and Sam had something in common, we both had mothers.

"Hey Mom, meet my eevee." Sam introduced me politely. I snorted as the dust Sam's mom had worked up in her frantic entrance finally reached my nose. Sam's mom took a step back with a look of disapproval.

"Honey, I don't know that it'll be able to protect you. Maybe you should return it and get a new Pokemon. Maybe one a little tougher." His mother reasoned gently, smoothing his hair. It was my turn to back up. My ears drooped a little. I couldn't believe she had said that. Especially when I had been painfully aware of her point not a minute ago.

Sam looked offended for me. (I'm really starting to like this guy.) "No, my eevee will be fine. Goodbye Mom, I'll see you later," he placed a hand on her shoulder as we passed. I stuck my tongue out at her.

_I'll show her,_ I thought, _I'll bring Sam back in one piece._

I trotted after him as he entered the forest. Two minutes into the journey Sam jumped up as if he was startled. I whipped my head around, searching the low foliage for predatory Pokemon.

"Dane!" He exclaimed. I followed his surprised stare to a boy with spiky blue hair. The boy saw Sam and turned around and sped swiftly away. Sam instantly chased after him. I couldn't keep up with Sam's run. After a mere ten paces, I fell to the forest floor.

No, I didn't fall, something grabbed one of my hind legs. I looked back. A purple mouse with red beady eyes glared at me and its teeth tightened on my soft muscles. I glanced at Sam, who was unaware of my dilemma.

Or he had an didn't care.

No, that wasn't it.

I barely knew him, but somehow, I had invested all my trust for every human all into him. If I couldn't trust him, I would never trust anyone.

I tried to pull my leg out of the rodent Pokemon's mouth but I had no luck. It was starting to really hurt. Sam was talking heatedly to the other boy.

"Vee-ee!" I cried to Sam. How weak... but it hurt so badly. The other boy noticed first, being the one facing me. He tapped on Sam's shoulder getting his attention and pointed to me. Sam turned around seeing me on the ground being held down by something and whimpering pitifully.

"Vee-ee," I tried again. Great, good for him to know he could count on me. He looked stunned and didn't move a muscle.

"Your Pokédex!" The other boy yelled, exasperated, already running away again. Sam looked like he wanted to run after him but ran up to us.

"Hang on...Nova!" He said pulling out his Pokedex in a hurry. In the process his camera spilled out, but he didn't notice. Huh. Nova. I like it. It was obvious he had spent a little time thinking about it. And he wasn't one of the uncreative 'Sparky'-'Daisy'-'Lucky' types. But I didn't think now was a good time to be thinking up names at the moment.

_- Eevee, canine Pokemon, Normal. Its irregularly configured DNA is affected by its surroundings. It evolves if its environment changes._

Then the Pokedex beeped again and said:

_- Rattata, mouse Pokemon, Normal. Living wherever there is food available, it ceaselessly scavenges for edibles the entire day._

The Rattata was completely ignoring Sam, using its paws to hold on to my leg which was an easier target after I had fallen down. His teeth were digging deeper and a small stream of blood was running down my leg. I turned around to face it. I curled back my lips and growled as menacingly as I could. To my surprise, the bite lessened slightly. The noisy red Pokédex chimed in again.

_-Growl. a normal attack. Lowers foe's attack. Eevee's current known attacks:_

_Tail Whip_

_Tackle_

_Helping Hand_

_Growl_

The information put new determination in Sam's eyes. He wanted nothing more at the moment than to help his fallen partner. His eyes no longer shifted towards a thick branch that his hands had been itching to in order to protect me. He gained just a little bit of confidence in both of us.

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><p>"Nova! Tackle!" Sam shouted pointing fiercely at the Rattata as if it would help scare away the angry mouse. Nova spun around with new exhilaration.<p>

What she did mattered. Her friend was here to help her. They could do this together. Nova's head hit the offending Ratatta's. With no momentum behind the attack, it was weak, but it pushed the Ratatta off her body. Nova stood up, but struggled to put any weight on her wounded leg.

"Alright, Nova, take him down with another Tackle!"

Nova complied, charging at the mouse Pokémon with newfound strength. The purple rodent went flying into a tree. He lay slumped at the bottom. Nova came closer, nose twitching curiously.

Did I actually beat him? To answer her question he sprung up again with his own tackle that ended in Nova laying winded at Sam's feet. Both their eyes were widened in shock. Dune's in surprise that such a little body could pack such a big punch (or tackle) and Sam because he had just discovered that Pokemon battles were not glorified sporting events.

Nova smiled at the care in Sam's eyes and she stood up, preventing her leg from slipping underneath her with a little difficultly. Her body tensed as she prepared to spring. She hit Ratatta and saw it smash into the tree trunk a foot from the ground. It lay there dazed for five seconds before its panicky eyes opened once again and it hurdled itself into the bushes. Nova's back legs gave out and she landed painfully on her butt.

Sam ran up to her and scooped her up. She beamed proudly at Sam. They had just taken their first step together, as trainer and Pokémon.

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><p><strong>#1. Through the next few chapters, try to guess the newly dubbed 'Nova's language. (Such as Sam's name and such).<strong>

**Also you will probably notice soon, the chapters are getting longer. That'll happen more when the action really starts. **

**Raven over and out.**


	3. Take a Vow

**Hey guys!**

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><p>My eyes tried to focus on two faces hovering above me. One looked distantly familar the other I had never seen before. I adjusted my position and as soon as I did, I was back in reality. I was with Sam and an old man with a kind smile. He was holding a small spray bottle up to my hind leg and securing my back paw delicately with two fingers and was explaining how whatever it was worked to Sam.<p>

I could tell had just set me down. I couldn't have been out for long so I guessed didn't faint from damage (yet) but of exhaustion of what had happened today. My injured leg twitched without asking my permission. I mentally scolded it when the movement brought a new bout of pain. I gritted my teeth to hold back a moan.

"This is a potion," explained the man.

_Like I care._ I thought, not being able to back away, I resorted to mentally insulting him.

"Now a normal potion restores 20 hitpoints,"

_I've always wanted to know that._

"Which is probaly all your Eevee has."

Hey! He just insulted me! I finally came to a state of full mental capibilities and lifted my head slightly to inspect the damage. Sam smiled when he saw that I was conscious.

"You spray the wound, your Eevee is pretty small, but this bite isn't near lethal to anything but a newborn."

I sniffed indignatily. It still hurt.

"Son, hold your Pokemon steady while I spray the bite, she seems a little jumpy and it might sting a little." The man older man instructed. I stiffened, not liking the sound of this. He shook the spray bottle as Sam hesitantly wrapped his arms around my neck and rested my head on his lap. I squirmed a little but it did nothing. I heard a spray and blue mist came out of the bottle. It hit my bite mark wound with the feeling of a dull thorn being shoved into my wound. I screamed for a second before I shut myself up by gently biting Sam's arm. If it hurt he didn't let me know. Seconds later, the pain diminished to a bruise being pummeled by an angry jiggypuff fist (can fists even be angry?) then... nothing. The pain was gone.

I relaxed against Sam and sighed taking my sharp teeth off him. Immediately, I checked for damage my teeth had caused on his arm. I could see imprints of my teeth that were blushing from the pressure, but no blood passed his skin. Good. I slumped back against him. So his skin was tougher than mine... for now. I would get stronger and stronger and be able to protect him from anything. Especially possibly rabid Rattata and crazy mothers and maybe even a couple caterpie-carrying, hyper aggressive little boys.

"You know your Eevee was only in so much pain because it hasn't been well enough trained. Its pain tolerance is extremely low. Probaly level 5 or 6. That's how Pokemon strength is measured, strength and ability to take hits."

Sam hung his head slightly, ashamed that he hadn't trained me properly. Which didn't make sense considering I had only known him, what, maybe a little bit more than a half hour?

"Sam it's not your fault, that Rattata was crazy. I'll get stronger soon, Sam. And then _I'll_ be the one to protect you." I vowed solemly, getting back to my feet. _Let the training begin._

Sadly, Sam did not understand Nova's heartfelt vow and instead only heard "Vee-e eve eeveeve vee eevee eve e eevee ee ee eevee."

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><p>Nova followed Sam at his sweat worthy pace until he finally slowed and gave up on chasing Dane. He plopped down next to the panting Eevee.<p>

"Guess that coward didn't want us to catch up to him." Huffed Sam. Nova wasn't so sure that was the reason, but snorted in agreement nonetheless.

After the incident with the rattata, they had encountered a caterpie. Nova had been able to defeat it in two minutes flat. It had been exausting though. Nova was now curiously watching Sam pull out a small, thin sleeping bag. He also pulled out his camera, a can of brown beans (which smelled nice) a small propane lighter and one person pot and a styrafoam bowl. In addition, he pulled out a thin leather **(AN: no one think about what the leather's made of...) **wallet with a raichu using thunder and a spare set of jeans, white socks, and a pale green shirt with a blue nike sign and dark blue sleeves. He put his pokedex to the side, folded up his jacket squirmed into the sleeping bag after cooking and sharing the beans with Nova.

Whatever I was eating, it was amazing. I can't find anything to describe it. Mix dry food pellets with metal tasting room temperature water and times it by everytime I've felt relieved that I'm with Sam instead of in isolation and thats what these little soft, wet, brown pebbles tasted like. The syrup with them exploded with flavor. I licked the sides eagerly of my frail white bowl.

"You like it, huh?" Sam smiled. " There called baked beans. I'll get them again if you want." I looked at him expextantly.

"Not right now, Nova." Sam laughed. I pouted but didn't complain. Sam tucked himself farther into the brown sack.

"It's night-time, so you should probably get into your Pokeball now, Nova."

No way. I did not want to be in one of those things. Not even a luxury ball. He reached for my pokeball but I got it first, rolling it stubbornly away. In the process I almost pressed the button to suck myself in, luckily I was spared the embarassment and my mission was a sucess.

"Guess you wanna keep me company then? Guess there's no harm." He welcomed under his arm and I gladly took it. I smiled up and at him and he smiled at me.

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><p>The next morning Nova and Sam (mostly Sam) packed up the supplies. Sam crouched down to Nova.<p>

"We have so much to do, Nova. Collect badges, get stronger, maybe win some contest ribbons, but well... I've been thinking, I'm not really gonna be the one fighting so... are you in? Do you wanna do this I mean?" Sam asked, looking to the side, an embarassed air to his words. His elbows resting on his bent knees Nova squealed in joy.

(Of course. I promised you, didn't I? Sam, I will always fight for you.)

"Ee! Nee-e e ve eevee vee-e!"

"So we countinue?" Sam looked hopeful.

"Ee." Nova replied, nodding her head vigorously. Sam ruffled Nova's head fur and put on his backpack. Nova noticed sam's camera laying around and grabbed it gently with her teeth and returned it to him. He smiled, scooped Nova up to his cheek and snapped a picture of them before putting it back in his bag.

Five minutes of walking was all it took for a small brown bird to appear, curious to what was happening. Since the creature was my height, I noticed it before Sam. Good.

Now I could show him what I was made of.

I was feeling a lot more confident after two battles, all of a days' field experience outisde, and a dream that I was Nova the Destroyer, defeating a building-size certain rattata that was terroizing a city with one move.

So, without a second thought, I charged at the bird. Behind me I heard Sam's call of surprise interupted by the Pokedex explaining a 'pidgey.' Like I care. It wouldn't be around long enough to make a difference. I was feeling stronger than I had this time yesterday and it was a rush. I felt like I just couldn't control the energy that my body was producing. It was exausting and exhilerating.

I rammed into the pidgey, knockibg it back two feet and then... ow. What the heck? The pidegy still hadn't gotten up. How had I been hit, right in the middle of my forehead. I felt something ooze down my face. I scrutinized the pidgey. Oh. I had tackled it and my face got nailed by its beak. I shouldn't have hit him head on, then.

"Hey! Nova, don't be so reckless! You hurt yourself!" Sam called from a couple yards away, giving me room to fight. _Come on, Nova,_ I thought, ignoring him, in blind stubbornness. _You need to show Sam that you can do this!_Out of instinct I knew that Helping Hand wouldn't do any good at the moment. I wanted to finish this fast, so I decided against growl. I didn't want lower his attack anyway, I could take another hit if I had to. what I wanted to do is lower his defense, his guard. So I swallowed what pride I had been able to scrape up after the ratatta attack and wagged my tail and tilted my head unthreateningly. He hesitated for a second before charging. I was positive that I didn't want to be at the recieving end if the pidgey beak, I clumsily jumped the side at he charged past and I used my head to flip him over. I hesitated, not knowing how to preform a tackle from this angle.

"Come on! Nova, Tackle!"

Alright, I thought. I backed up a step and charged. Nailing him into the ground with my head. He was done.

...Except he wasn't. He had moved far enough to avoid most the impact. I had smashed a wing into the earth. With little padding, I pulled my sore head up. My neck hurt and the pidgey was gone. Sam hurried over to me. He took a napkin and wiped my war wound. A spot the size of a quater appeared once he pulled the napkin away from my face.

"I'm okay." I reassured him. I felt werid strength flowing through my limbs at the moment even though I felt dizzy. I noticed that yesterday I would have fainted by now. _But I'm fighting for someone and something now,_ I reminded myself.

Sam understood I wanted to keep going so he picked me up and carried me in his arms.

"When we leave this forest I'll be twice as strong as when I entered." I finally said.

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><p><strong>(PS: thank you the pie for your review!)<strong>


	4. Mr Gold Triple Punch

**Well, another double chapter ^_^ **

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><p>The next day was uneventful if you disclude the encounter with a Zigzagoon. I won. No big deal. I did all I could to resist prancing around the limp Pokemon in glee. Sam didn't catch the Zigzagoon. I thought maybe he wanted another day with just me. However on the hill we camped at that night, we noticed the end of the forest was growing closer. I had to get stronger. And he had to catch a Pokemon.<p>

I was trotting along, pushing my tired muscles to move just a little better when I saw something faded yellow trying to bury itself into the ground. I changed my direction towards it and cautiously batted my paw at it. The creature was underground arms and up (down?) It's tail wiggled in the air trying to push itself further. But I had other plans. I set my paws on its back and pushed with all my might. Pop! Its head and arms came out. It curled itself into a ball and rolled a couple feet away, then opened up facing me. Sam's Pokedex beeped and told us that it was a ground type- Sandshrew. The pokemon had a little blush on its cheeks probably from the lack of oxygen in the dirt.

"You're not very good at digging." I informed him mildly. The sandshrew's brick like body prickled and he pushed his head forward slightly.

"Yeah well, its really not my thing, okay?"

I looked at Sam in confusion. He also seemed to want to know why a Sandshrew was yelling at his Eevee. I glanced at the hot-headed Pokemon, then did a double take. It had rolled up and headed straight towards me at a very fast roll. No way I could dodge. Sam's breath hitched a little in anticipation. However, Sandshrew's roll went a little off course and hit a tree neighboring me instead. I knew this was my chance so I rammed against the yellow opening blur as soon as his head separated from his torso.

And I painfully bounced right off. He was as hard as rock. He spun around and tightened his paw into a tiny fist. And he hurled it towards me. I dodged the first one, then the second, but the third one nailed me in the face. The forth and fifth made contact. I was getting dizzy and closer to being cornered against a tree. Not good.

"Nova-Sand Attack!" came Sam's voice. I didn't really know what I was doing but I grabbed a pawful of dirt and pushed it from the clearing to his eyes in a thick spray. It gave me an opening to Tackle his stomach which was, as I had hoped, much softer than his back. He lay sprawled on his back. Sam ran over to me, while throwing a Pokeball at the dazed creature. Right before Sam reached me, I fell into a lump on the ground panting quietly, I was a bit worse for wear, but mostly just tired, but even though I wanted to get up, my muscles didn't seem to want to listen for the moment.

Sam ran over to me and enveleoped me in a big hug I nuzzled his arm.

"I can't believe it! We caught a Pokemon!"

I gave him a half-hearted glare. But really, 'I can't believe it?' _I could believe it!_

Sam pulled out the spray and I braced myself against the bark of the tree I had been cornered against anticipating the sting of the painful bruises after being hit with the freezing liquid. Sam, taking note of my nervousness pressed his lips together into a flat line and ruffled my tuft of fur on the top of my head.

"I'm sorry," he said, completely apologetic. However, when he sprayed it at me, it stung, but not as badly as it had the time before. Soon, the spray stopped and Sam placed it in his bag again. I bounced my tail against the ground to show Sam I was fine. After that, he seemed to loosen up. He took the new Pokéball off his belt and eyed it warily. "How do we know its not gonna attack again or something?" I had wondered the same thing a minute earlier, but when I thought about my Pokéball, a calm feeling seemed to sweep over me. I strongly believed the effect would be close to the same for the haughty Sandshrew. I nudged Sam encouragingly and batted the ball farther into his loose grip. "Okay, Nova, it's our funeral." His eyes narrowed and he tossed the Pokéball so it spun in the air (I was impressed). A hollow noise came from the pokeball as it hit the ground and opened up in a flash of red light.

Out of the Pokéball emerged the Sandshrew, looking very irriated. "What the heck is your problem? One second I was givin' you a my Gold Triple Punch and the next I lost to someone _without fists_!"

"You don't need fists to beat someone if you have teeth, claws, and some sense." I told him wryly. The dissed (and kinda pissed) Sandshrew ran at me, however him being exhausted and winded and me being returned to top condition, enabled to stop him by placing my front paws on his head and firmly placing my back paws into the dirt. I arched my back slightly so that his madly swinging punches couldn't reach my stomach. "No need to be upset." I told him, vaguely realizing that I might not be helping the situation very much.

"You just caught me on a bad day! That's what happened! Come'ere so I can beat the snot outta you!" He almost wailed. I stepped to the side as quickly as I could manage and he fell sprawled onto the dirt. After a second I told him 'You fell on my foot.'

"It's your own damn fault." He growled, jaw against the dirt. I shoved him off my smushed foot and waited until he got up.

"I'm Nova, nice to meet you (I guess...) you were just defeated by me and Sam, my-our new master. So... welcome to the team." I told him sincerely. His eyes widened slightly. Then he turned his head with a small tilt to examine Sam with a careful eye. Looked slightly nervous under his gaze until finally the odd sandshrew turned back to Dune with his report. 'Well, I hoped that if I ever got caught, it would be by someone a little more athletic, perferably with a Hitmonchan is his party, but whatever, I guess. My name's Gold."

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><p><strong>So... what do you think? Reviews...? Anyone? 'Kay well anyways s'all good. If anyone has any ideas for other teammates (have to be Kanto pokemon with evolutions) or if you just have a personality idea, I'd be happy to know, cause honestly, this stories flying off the seat of my pants (but I'll have its fair share of excitement.) Expect an update late January. Bye!<strong>


	5. Oh Joy

**Got the chapter up when I said I would! Anyway, I would have updated sooner but I went ski tripping with my friends! :D And tomorrow I'm going on a church retreat to Wisconsin and I have my drivers ed permit test tomorrow not to mention a crap load of homework. ew...**

**Espeon shiny: **Thanks for your review (so much!) Good news, I stayed with one view point the _whole_ time! And I like the idea of having Meowth in the story, but s/he will probably come in further in the story. And your English is great, I didn't notice at all. (my first language was spanish too! but I learned english really early (like 4-5) and (like an idiot) stopped speaking spanish. I'm currently trying to relearn it 0_o' ) Anyway, everyone can thank you for having this chapter out so early (and long). Enjoy!

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><p>Last night was the first night with a new team member, Gold. I had managed to introduce him to Sam by pointing insistantly at a small bunch of yellow papers stuck together in Sam's backpack then to Gold for five minutes until he had finally guessed the color gold. I stretched a little from the position I was lying in, eyes still closed when something forcfully nudged my side. I cracked an eye open and to my surprise, I recognized the foot smushing into me. I guess thats what happens when you battle with someone.<p>

'Whadda yuh wannd?' Above me was Gold. The hot-headed sandshrew had his arms crossed, his foot pressing on my side and a very intense expression on his face. I shook off my sleepyness. 'Whats up?' I asked like I hadn't been woken up by a semi-sadistic looking sandshrew who was practically stepping on me.

'This is the second time you've stepped on me.' I observed when he did not answer, hiding my nervousness as well as I could. Suddenly, Gold's pointer finger was in my face. 'I challenge you to a rematch!' He declared. I blinked. Thats what he was so fired up about. 'I guess I can spare a little time to beat you.' I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly (I hoped my acting was up to par.) I followed him into a small part of a clearing a little off from Sam's sleeping form. 'You ready?' He asked. 'Definetly.' I told him.

'Here it commeeessss!' I charged at him, this would be easy. I already beat him once, how hard could it be to do it again?

Gold held his fist to his side, smirked and I realized what was going to happen two seconds in advance. I tried to react. I started to turn. His fist impacted into my shoulder. I went tumbling a few feet away in a discolored eevee lump.

Well, that was a surprise. Maybe he is stronger than me? Why did I trust this recently-wild-turned-unwild pokemon whom I had just battled with over domaincy with yesterday enough to let him take me away from Sam before he was even awake? Of course he would want to get revenge, we had _forcibly taken him from his home_. He probaly saw this as he only way to get free. Wait! If I lost did that reverse the effects of capture? Was he just trying to escape? I growled furiously. He wasn't gonna ditch Sam that easy, not if I could help it. And I decided I would.

I jumped at him claws extended. _This guy is going down,_ I decided for him.

The split second before my claws made contact with Gold's skin, I realized most his armor was as hard as a tree. I decided to use my claws as a fake out to get a good shot at his jaw or chest. But Gold seemed to realize my clumsy fake-out and crouched a little lower, putting his arms in front of his face. My claws just scraped against his armor. I withdrew my paw, shaking the soreness from my nails. I looked up to see a swinging fist closing in on my head.

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><p>I tensed and crouched, trying to defend myself as much as possible for what was about to happen when I realized Gold's fist was taking an awfully long time to connect with my face. I peeked. Gold had an intensely amused look on his face.<p>

'Huh?' I asked, blinking. Gold smirked as he withdrew his tiny tight fist from my face.

'Don't go thinkin' just 'cause your owner caught me and you managed to get in a couple hits doesn't mean your stronger than me. That fight was almost as its turn around, _Rusty_.' Gold told me.

'W-wha?' I protested to the name 'Rusty,' I had really come to like my name the last two days. I forced my insulted brain to think about the situation at hand, however. Gold's strength. It made sense, in a way. His punch was about two or three times stronger now that he wasn't oxygen deprived thanks to the tunneling he had been attempting.

I shook my head in order to clear it. In front of me, Gold had his arms crossed. We stared at each other for a couple slightly akward seconds before he broke it off to glance at Sam's waking form. 'I guess we should go an' get boss ta get a move on.'

I agreed.

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><p>It was two hours later. After the first hour, I had been running out of steam. Approximately five minutes later, a bird Pokémon (I later found out was Spearow) decided it was a good idea to try and ambush Gold. Two punches and his foe was flying for the hills. Sam let out a cheer and I decided that it was of the utmost importance that Sam know I could do that someday (soon, hopefully) so I pushed aside my foots tingling compliants and continued walking.<p>

Around an hour and twenty minutes into the long foresty trek, I realized my feet were starting to twitch with their own volition. I annoyed me because it did nothing for my ignore-it-and-it-will-go-away plan and frankly, twitchy legs are hard to balance on. Another couple of minutes until they started to shake. Any moment, it would noticeable to Sam, four feet above me and dumb-o Gold five feet away from me who was humming a rythmic beat that I had been relying on to give me energy for the last ten minutes. A slight shudder and shrill but quiet cry of a weedle was enough to send me over the eevee edge.

I jumped up but was unable to land back my feet but somewhere between my paws and on my stomach. I whined in discomfort and Sam stooped over me to find out what was the matter. Gold either didnt't notice of just didn't care because he just kept humming his little hype-up music. With some quick thinking, I pretended I got a thorn or something in one of my paws and moaned a tiny bit (all the while realizing that it I was currently 180 degrees away from the image I wanted) and Sam picked me up.

_So what the heck happened to being strong enough to protect him?_

I agonized over that for a almost half an hour before I saw the edge of the forest and something that resembled the outside I had seen with Sam in my first ten minutes of freedom. A town? Yes! Finally!

And suddenly, I had an epiphany. I had promised to become twice as strong when we left the forest. And I was. I could felt it in my core. No way a rabid ratatta could down me now. I knew from a couple battles' experience that one, some attacks effect only certain pokemon and others are useless in other situations, and two, just because I we had had our first milestone in our journey, I still had a lot to learn.

And I would learn it.

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><p>Arriving in Virdian City was a weird thing. Almost my entire life outside the lab had been in that forest. And I owed it something for becoming stronger. As soon as we entered the gates of the town, Sam recalled Gold but scooped me back up into his arms. Not like I was going to go along with that plan though. I had more or less recovered from all the walking and I really wanted to take in the town at my own sight level and view. So, me and Sam walked into the bustling town.<p>

It was so strange, I'd never seen more than three people at a time before, and honestly, it was kind of unnerving. The first place we stopped was a place called a Pokemon Center where another trainer said Pokemon trainers go to heal their Pokemon. A pink haired lady with a nice voice named Nurse Joy asked for Sam's Pokeballs and Sam took Gold's Pokeball off his belt and set it onto the tray. All I could do was stare in confusion. What was that lady gonna do with Gold? Then Sam scooped me up and set me onto another tray.

"Behave," Sam told me with a smile and thumbs up and a Chansey took me and carried me into a separate room and I tried to figure out what the heck was going on.

From there I was put on a tiny, cheap hospital bed. She bandaged the spot on my forehead that had not completely healed. Then that Chansey set a glass half cylinder above me but before I could properly protest, I was falling into a warm, deep sleep.

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><p>When I finally woke up, I was being handed back to Sam by Nurse Joy. She gave him a smile and assured him that we were at full health. Sam took me and scratched me behind my ear.<p>

"Is there a Pokemon Gym here?" Sam asked eagerly.

Nurse Joy shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry young man, the leader of the gym is away on buisness. He won't be back for at least a few months. But he is one of the strongest gym leaders in Kanto so I wouldn't recommend trying until your Eevee and Sandshrew are a lot stronger."

Sam nodded sadly and carried me out of the Pokemon Center and sat on a bench.

"What are we gonna do now, Nova?" He asked.

I knew I had to find some way to get him out of his funk, but how?

We started walking around town, when Sam suddenly stopped, looking a sleep sheepish. "I guess we should let Gold out too, huh?" His stomach rumbled. "And maybe get something to eat?" He took Gold's Pokeball off his belt and tossed it in the air.

Gold appeared in a flash of light. "San-san-shrew!" Gold looked around and by his cool expression, I guessed that he had passed by or even entered Viridian City as a wild Pokemon.

Sam looked to excited to hold back any longer so he pumped his fist into the air and yelled, "Let's eat!"

We entered a restaurant with wide tables designed so people could eat with their Pokemon. Gold and I climbed up onto the table. Promptly, a waitress on roller-skates with just-past shoulder length, dark blue hair with side bangs and a sea green headband brought two dishes of Pokemon food and took Sam's order. She looked over us with interest.

"My names Rae, nice to meet you. Where are you from?"

She asked with a small smile.

"I'm Sam Greyson. This is Nova and Gold." Sam replied kindly.

"They're so cute! I've never seen an eevee in real life, is it supposed to be that color?" Rae asked innocently.

I snorted, offended by her words and Rae's approaching hand withdrew and she easily shook off the rejection.

"Anyway, I'll get your order right away." And with that, she skated away.

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><p><strong>What do you think of Rae?<strong>

**Any comments/concerns/ideas?**


	6. Pokemon Police Posse

**New chapter yaa ^_^**

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><p>After walking around the small town (population: 30) Sam spotted something that peaked his interest and ran up to a sign too high for me to read, if I possessed the ability to read anyway. But, it turns out, I didn't have to read it because Sam read it to us.<p>

"Trainer School:Basic Pokemon statistics and battle strategy."

I could tell it piqued Sam's interest so I ran up to the door to show him I supported his choice.

The three of us entered and the stout professor at the chalkboard motioned Sam to take a seat and a free table nearby a short boy in white and green with short brown hair and brown eyes. As soon as Sam sat down, I jumped into his lap and Gold leaned against his legs and started to doze off.

The boy smiled at us and gave us a small wave. "Hi! My name's Andy. I'm not a Pokemon trainer yet, but I will be in a month! I already have my first Pokemon though! I just can't go on a journey yet, so I'm studying here instead. Me and my Trouge are gonna be the strongest team Kanto's ever seen!" Andy gushed.

"I'm Sam. I've only been a trainer for four days, but I'm gonna be your competition so watch out!"

"Ee!" I added in for extra measure. Then class began. Trainer School was about two and a half hours long and covered Basic Pokemon Grooming, Intro to Massage (I enjoyed that one a lot), Basic Pokemon Exercise, Battle Tactics 101 (which me and Sam learned that I was a normal type and therefore weak against fighting types (which was Gold's talent) and that Gold was weak against ice, water, and grass and strong against electric, poison and fire.) They also covered Pokemon Behavior 1, Pre-Intro to Commands and Simple Pokemon Handling.

Everything went well except the last one because the students were told to let out their Pokemon and the trainers had to order or hold their Pokemon still to test how comfortable the Pokemon were with being touched. I panicked and bit the Professor's hand when he so much as tried to stroke my back. The only human contact I'd ever had was with Professor Oak, Nurse Joy and Sam.

Overall, though, Sam seemed to be pretty happy with everything he had learned and had a more confident air to him that made me proud.

And then I saw a little Ratatta slinking around corners, shadowing a little boy and calculating how to separate him from his form of human food he was eating. My new hatred of Ratatta was what drove me foreword. Sam yelped as he started to chase after me and I, making no attempt to be quiet, had been noticed by the purple mouse and it was making its hasty retreat.

In that moment, I heard another set of footsteps and looked up to see a pair of legs almost right on top of me. Just in the nick of time, I weaved through them to avoid becoming part of the sidewalk. Sam wasn't so lucky though. He had been right behind me and the two humans crashed directly into each other.

I turned back to the tangled bodies as they tried getting up. Only when she did did I realize who it was. It was the waitress at the Poké Cafe they had gone to earlier.

"Rae!" Exclaimed Sam, evidently surprised as well. Rae didn't respond because she was gasping and staring at something behind us like she'd just won the lottery and then they announced they actually put up the wrong number.

"My bus..." She said quietly. Me and Sam turned around to see a bus pulling out of view.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked and he helped her up.

"That was the bus I was supposed to take to get on the train. It only passes through here once every two to three weeks and I need to get to Vermilion city! I was only supposed to be here for a month to get some research for my cousins! The train stop is over a mile away and the train leaves in less than ten minutes now!"

Sam's face turned determined. "Well then, lets get you there!"

"What?"

"Come on, lets go!" He grabbed her hand and all three of us started running. By the time we got to the train station, though, the train was just pulling out of the station. We all exhaustedly pulled to a stop and rested against a could of trunks in a grove of trees. Sam finally spoke.

"I'm sorry that my missed your train..." He started.

"It's fine. I'll just have to find another way to get home, I guess..." She sighed.

"So what were you researching here in Viridian City for your cousins anyway?"

Rae's face brightened. "I was here to get some pointers from Viridian Officer Jenny on training Police Pokemon!" She said proudly.

"Police Pokemon?"

She blushed a little, "Yeah, law enforcement is kind of in the family. My cousins are Vermilion and Celadon Officer Jennys." She pointed at her hair and face. "You gotta admit, I kind of look like them, but in a family picture, I'm the odd one out." She pulled a picture out of her pocket and showed me and Sam a picture of twelve young Officer Jennys and three older ones. The only difference was their slightly faded hair and paler skin. I had to give them credit for how well they aged. And then I noticed Rae in midst the sea of Jennys, she did look very different.

"I also have a different opinions on the Pokemon that can be Police Pokemon. All my cousins think that Growlithe, Vulpix, and Ponyta are the only suitable Police Pokemon and they don't listen to me because I'm twelve and they're all at least seventeen, but my dream is to finally prove them wrong!" Rae struck a pose. "So I'm working on my very own Police Pokemon Posse!"

I was very weirded out by this point.

Rae released one of her Pokeballs. A small star Pokemon appeared in a flash of light. "Cleffa is not only small enough to fit into small spaces but me and her have been training to understand each other so she can relay any information they uncovered. Cleffa are also a highly intelligent species so she would be in charge of keeping her group together when out alone!" She threw another Pokeball. "Azurill and tiny and can infiltrate places by traveling through water. Using its tail, Azurill can jump high or fight while surrounded!" She threw another. "Igglybuff can float and has a lot of health points and will be able to sing Pokemon asleep when she gets stronger! And together, we are the TOP POKEMON SPY TEAM!" Rae, Cleffa, Azurill, and Igglybuff all stood in ridiculous stances that might possibly resemble superheroes if it didn't look so ridiculous.

The three of us decided to stop at the pokemart before leaving for the next town along Route 2. Sam bought a couple more potions and spray heals. As we finally head out into Route 2, Sam released Gold and introduced him to Rae. About two minutes into the walk Rae decided that Sam needed to know how to give a proper tip.

When the moon was high in the sky, Sam and Rae unpacked their sleeping bags and set up a pit. Knowing what would come next, I started collecting sticks and made a pile near Sam while Gold played with a piece of straw in his mouth.

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><p><strong>Sadly, Gold didn't have much to say in this chapter but this chapter was more about the humans so its <strong>**understandable .**

**Do you like Rae? Comments or suggestions? Opinions? Random words that don't make any sense?**


	7. Earth Shattering Discovery!

**Sorry not updating forever. As many may know, I'm really don't actually have a plan for this story, other than the very, very frame of it, so every plot twist is gonna surprise me as much as you.**

**Also, this story now has 10 chapters and over 11,000 words. Enjoy!**

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><p>Rae released her little troop of Pokemon and had Amarill fill up the bowls and cups of water which has very useful. What wasn't so useful was Cleffa and Igglybuff rearranging the sticks that would make the campfire and puffing up at each other. Pretty soon, we had a nice campfire going and Sam and Rae were having a conversation so I decided to do the same on my part too.<p>

"Gold!" I hissed in his ear.

"Eh? Huh...Rusty? What was that for?" Mumbled Gold still closing one eye. I ignored him and pushed him up to his feet. Or rather tried. He was a foot taller than me which meant he was twice my height and weight.

"We are going to start up a conversation."

I lead the poor sandshrew over to the three new Pokemon figuring that we might as well get to know our new teammates. Cleffa and Azurill were giggling together and Igglybuff was trying to perfect cartwheels that were really just her rolling around the floor. Cleffa stood up, shaking her head and performed an almost flawless cartwheel. Azurill and Igglybuff cheered and Cleffa blushed even though it was almost impossible to tell, as Cleffa cheeks were permanently colored.

I was completely thrown off by having to look downwards at another Pokemon. Gold was twice as tall as me but these three were much shorter.

"Hi, I'm Nova. It's nice to meet you."

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><p>I was the first to wake up. So I took my time to leisurely stretch and look around. Suddenly, my ear involuntarily twitch. A noise of some kind. I pressed her ear to the ground to search for vibrations. Tiny, unnatural tremors shuddered from the ground so feeble, even my incredibly soft, sensitive paw pads could barely sense them. I looked around. Sam and Rae were sleeping soundly due to apparently, humans having less acute hearing and tiny strange ears. Azurill's tiny ears were vibrating every couple of seconds, otherwise did not stir from her slumber.<p>

Sighing, I decided to check out the mysterious sound. As I tip-toed past Gold as quietly as I could. _I guess I've become more agile these last couple days,_ I thought, smiling.

I started moving toward the edge of the clearing and the vibrations increased slightly. After a couple of minutes, I started feeling a little nervous. I wasn't strong yet, I'd do what I had to, but I was also starting to leave Sam in the middle of the night like this, no matter how short of a time she planned on being gone. But, he did have Gold so he would be safe. There was nothing to worry about.

"So you decide to take a midnight stroll then zone out. You're kinda a oddball, ya know that, Rusty?" Gold said from right behind me.

"Iieyh!" I screeched, jumping into the air. "I-it's Nova!"

Gold looked amused. "You really didn't notice me following you?"

"Uh?"

"No answer, huh?" Gold snickered pompously. I was about to reply when another tremor almost strong enough to knock me off her feet shook the ground. The fight dissolved immediately.

"Let's get back before anyone notices _you_ made me come out here," Gold told me.

I didn't take the bait and shook my head at the idiot Sandshrew.

"I'll meet you at the camp in a couple minutes. I've gotta find out what that is." I started to walk towards it again, expecting Gold to go back and get me in trouble but Gold started to follow me instead.

"So ya finally got yourself a backbone, huh Rusty?" He laughed.

We continued towards the tremors for almost five more minutes.

"Where is this place anyway?" I asked, half in frustration, half in anxiety.

"Hell if-" Gold began but a giant tremor cut him off. I lay on the ground, digging my claws into the ground and as my brain rattled in my skull. As it started to recede I noticed Gold was still standing up, looking at me vaguely confused. I pulled myself up and remembered that the mini quakes were not as effective to Gold who was twice as big and twice as heavy. Not only that, but he was a ground-type so an earthquake wouldn't be nearly as jarring for him.

"I'm fine, lets go." I said, continuing towards the shaking ground, wondering for not the first time in the last few minutes if I was sane or not.

Another short but much more powerful tremor hit, causing me to fly through the air "Ee!"

I fell into a tree and lay in a heap at the base.

"Rusty? Come on get up, the trees all bark and no bite." He laughed at his own dumb joke while I pulled myself up again and started to walk with heavy footsteps to make sure I wouldn't get tossed around.

"Let's go."

We finally reached the edge of the trees where we saw a huge excavation site decimated by dozens of forceful figures spread out within half a mile.

"What's that?" I whispered.

"I think they're digging." He replied breathily. "But I don't think they're up to any good."

"I think you're right." I told me as I snuck a little closer. My paw snapped a twig under then froze when I heard a snap from a twig under my paw.

The two nearest humans who spun around.

"Paras! Stun spore! " The lady screamed. Seconds later a Paras behind us started to spew powder forcing us out of the foliage and into plain sight twenty feet away from them. The lady was Japanese with her black hair in a tight bun with chopsticks sticking out. She had straight bangs in front of her face with a slightly off center red streak. She had red eyeshadow and purple eyes. I had never seen a human like her and it was intimidating. Her eyes looked calculating and angry.

The man had aqua bowl-cut with a small piece of hair awkwardly sticking up. He had blue eyes and a dark smirk.

"Maylin, look what we found, a shiny Eevee! The boss will promote us of we bring it to him!"

A look of determination came over the woman. "Let's do it, Gill! Machop, attack them! For Team Magna!"

"Let's give them some of our Magna attitude!" He agreed loudly. A Machop who a minute earlier was digging with a shovel that lay abandoned on the uneven, shaking ground, ran over and aimed a punch almost too fast to react. But Gold did. Gold held open his paw and once the Machop's punch connected (sending a tremor through Gold himself) Gold did his best to wrap his tiny paws around the mini-fist and held their hands away to deliver a powerful punch to the Machop's stomach. The Machop flinched and jumped back to pull itself together. Maylin and Gill looked completely shocked.

"Let's go!" Gold shouted as we turned tail and ran back into the forest and back to the campsite as fast as possible (after making sure they were far enough behind to not find where our campsite was).

Finally, exhausted we saw Sam who has looking for us a couple minutes away from the campsite. When he saw us his face brightened and he ran up and hugged us. I nuzzled Sam affectionately and Gold even let Sam hug him.

Through charades and a lot of attempted communication, we managed to explain to Sam that bad Pokémon were digging and noticed us. We didn't know how or if we should tell me about the mysterious people. Sam decided to recall us into our Pokéballs instead of have us walk for hours on tired feet.

I relaxed in a ten by ten foot round meadow with a waterfall roughly the same size as me that came from nowhere. It led into a tiny stream that flowed cleanly across the side of my habitat. I slept in a particularly tall patch of grass near the middle. 'So tired...' was my last thought.

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><p><strong>Please review!<strong>


	8. Punch That Pastry!

**Thank you, I.C.2014 you are amazing and I love you for commenting. I did not notice that the ending was such a cliff hanger cause I know whats gonna happen! ha ha! Usually I don't like to torture people with suspense and also to thank you for commenting, a new chapter! Two chapters in two days! Yaay!**

**Everyone else, please review. And also everyone who stopped reading this fic, start reading again. There is no good reason to stop 'cause this stories' just getting starting. Actually, there is a reason to stop, I take forever to update, but I'll try to write more often because the stories' getting to the exciting part!**

**Just so you know, even if I don't update for a long, time, remember, I WILL NEVER put this story on hiatus. I WILL NEVER delete it. In fact, if you notice it hasn't been updated for a couple years, know that I'm now either a paraplegic, turned legally retarded from a terrible car accident, or dead. I intend to keep going on this story for a long while yet. It's gonna long folks.**

**So buckle up for the ride.**

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><p>During the walk through the forest I was called out once to battle a pidgey. Making sure to not tackle it directly in front, I used tackle to speed up and crash onto his back, sending him to the ground. Then he was finished. I didn't feel very much stronger after the battle but it had taken a little more than a minute to defeat him so he must have been really weak. Sam didn't recall me after the battle and I was glad. I was almost fully recovered by then and ready for some exercise. I walked between Rae and Sam for the better part of an hour before I smelled something not out of the ordinary for a town, but very strange in the middle of the forest. Baked beans and other warm human foods. Realizing I was starving, I whined and paced in the succulent direction. Rae and Sam looked at each other and shrugged and followed.<p>

We came across a small bakery within a minute or two and by the intake of breath and delighted expressions, they smelled it too. Sam opened the door for me and I walked in. A girl maybe 16 yeas old with light blue, flowing hair. She running around setting tables in a large room. Her machop was helping out, wearing a tired grin so sincere I almost didn't notice he was the same type of Pokemon as Team Magna's machop.

Once the noticed us, she pulled to a stop in front of us.

"I'm so sorry! I don't have any seats available. I have giant reservation in two hours and I need to start preparing the food!"

"Ma-machop!" Machop agreed.

"Do you need any help?" Asked Rae, looking at her arm. I noticed it was in a cast.

"You really want to help?" She asked, entirely relieved.

"Of course! What can we help you with?" Asked Sam.

"Well, a Pokefan conference comes here twice a year and they called in a reservation almost a week ago, but then I broke my arm. Since then I've tried to make dough but I just can't punch it down enough that it has its Kanto-famous texture. Poor Punchi just can't do it alone. Oops! Name's Selena by the way!" She informed us while leading us into the kitchen.

"Chop chop." Punchi said sadly.

"We can help." Rae said grabbing an extra apron.

Selena smiled and thanked her.

"Go! Amarill! Squirt the flour with water on my command." Rae and Amarill started to mix the dough. Rae then passed the dough to Sam, who had been teaching me how wash my paws.

"One thing I should warn you about though..." Selena began with a nervous laugh.

Sam tried to punch down the dough but instead of it popping and being flattened, Sam fist bounced back towards his own unsuspecting face.

"What the heck?" He exclaimed as he rubbed his sore eye. Confused, I walked over to the dough and as hard as I could, brought my paw down on the dough. It almost flipped me over.

"Vee?" I asked, stunned.

Selena looked sheepish. "Experienced bakers refer to it as 'trampoline dough' but when kneaded correctly, makes a delicious honey bun so soft and crisp it melts on your tongue!" Her eyes took on a dreamy gleam. Then she was brought to the present again when her watch alarm went off.

"Ahh! Punchi and I have keep setting the tables! Good luck!" And they ran off.

"How are we supposed to knead this dough?" Asked Sam as Rae handed him around ball of dough. Suddenly, I had an idea. I sat up on my hind legs and, after making sure I had good balance, I alternately pumped my fists out in front of me like a boxer.

"Punching? Yeah, but it's too bouncy." Sam said.

I pointed towards the gold wallpaper and Sam understood.

"Go, Gold!" He said as he released Gold. Sam let me debrief him on the plan.

I pointed at the dough that Sam placed the ball of dough on a slanted table a foot high as Sam put a little flour on each of Gold's paws.

Gold eyed me suspicously.

"Do you see that Machop busing the tables? He's pretty sure that he's the best fighter around. He kneaded 20 of these things in 8 minutes flat, but I guess that's probably the world record or something..." I trailed off. The bait was set.

Gold's paws closed into rock-hard fists. "Ha. That's funny. I almost thought you were insinuating that the little blue monkey is a better fighter than me" he sneered.

_Hook, line, and sinker._

Gold was surprised to say the least when his fist connected to his face. I could barely contain my snort of laughter as i almost fell off the table were Sam had started to help Amarill and Rae with the kneading.

Gold's face contorted angrily. "Wanna rumble, eh?" He asked the offending dough viciously, rolling his shoulders.

Then he released a flurry of punches rapid fire. I cringed when the first two punches bounced off rather strongly. But the next few produced a muted pop, like the bubble stuff Sam had played a prank on me with two days ago. Finally, a particularly hard punch completely deflated the dough with a loud boom. Still in total shock I hefted a wooden board with a handle on it and scooped up the dough with some difficultly. Sam gave Gold a pat on the head, which Gold batted off without malice. Then Sam opened the oven and set the timer as I manipulated the dough off the wood and onto the baking rack in the oven.

The next couple were made with chesto berry, which everyone soon found out, Gold was allergic to. Every punch he gave the dough, a flurry of powder would assail Gold's nose, causing him to sneeze. Though I did feel bad for Gold, the situation was hilarious. Even more so when Selena came back in to see Gold punching and sneezing all over the dough. However, she was so happy that the job was almost done that she didn't seem to mind too much.

We decided to stay after cooking to help serve the Pokemon Fan Club. Selena went overboard with that idea. She tied a pink bow around my neck and hitched me to a tiny, decorated wagon with enough room for a couple plates. Upon bringing the food to the first table, I realized that, much to my horror, upon seeing an eevee, strangely colored, no less, they were much more interested in _me_ than the steaming honey buns.

One fat woman picked me up and got right into my face, distorting her voice to a frequency didn't know humans were even capable of. I pinned my ears back and tried to free myself from her huge, man hands. Turning for help, I saw my savior.

"Gold, help me!" I begged him. He looked at me, eyes glaring obviously upset about the cart he was carelessly kicking to its destination. The small bowtie he was wearing, crooked from his attempts to take it off. He smirked.

"I'll get right on that, Rusty." He called back walking away.

_My hero._

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><p>"Thank you so much for your help! I couldn't have done it without you!" Selena beamed, both her and her machop waving heartily. In gratitude, she had loaned us her spare bedroom. Rae and her slightly useless blubber-balls of Pokemon got to sleep on the bed while Sam, Gold and I slept on the ground. Well, more accurately, I slept on Sam's face. And Rae offered to make room on the bed to sleep with them but I didn't know what a bed was and wanted to stay with Sam. So in the morning, I acted my part and grumbled and complained at Rae alongside Sam and Gold about not getting the 'bed' whatever the heck that does anyway.<p>

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><p><strong>REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!<strong>


	9. Outnumbered 2 to 3

**Longest chapter yet! 1,900+ words! Enjoy!**

**I know (with some certainty) that people are, in fact, reading this story. I would greatly appreciate reviews. I won't post the next chapter until I get at least 22222TWO22222 more reviews!**

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><p>Sam jumped up jovially. He pumped his fists into the air with gusto with a triumphant yell. "I caught a Weedle!" I covered my grin by licking my rumpled chest fur cooly.<p>

The battle hadn't lasted too long but it had been tricky. I had been forced to divert all of my attention to the rapid fire poison sting attacks. Finally, one of them had hit me but thankfully didn't have enough poison to be effective.

After Sam caught the Weedle, which he deemed Missile, and rightfully so, we all decided to take a break. While Sam and Rae studied the map, Gold, the mini-police pokemon, and I decided to get acquainted with our new teamate. It felt werid to think that now Team Sam had three.

We all decided to go far enough away from the bickering humans to be able hear each other so we picked a clearing several yards away.

I was the first to approach Missile. "Nice to meet you, I'm-"

"Shrimpy." Gold finished for me just for the sake of his terrible humor. "And I'm Gold."

Missile looked a little confused but decided it was best not to question the punchy Pokemon. "Hello..." He said almost mutely.

Amarill bounced over right in front of him on her tail. "Hiya!" She chirped loudly. Missile stumbled backwards , scared on his dozen tiny legs. "H-hi" He choked out.

Igglybuff rolled over to where Amarill was and soundly slapped the back of her head, which was basically her whole body. This smashed Amarill into the ground where she lay dazed for half a second before hopping back up again.

"Leave 'im 'lone Squirt." Igglybuff chasted her friend, puffing up her cheeks by a tiny degree. I remembered their nicknames for each other with a snort of humor.

Amarill was unfazed and again got into Missile's face. After a silence and Amarill's pensive face for half a minute, Amaril asked, "Are you a unicorn?"

After one long explanation by Cleffa what Sam would call a 'school lesson,' Amaril finally seemed to get it through her buoyant body that Missile was not, in fact a 'unicorn'.

All of a sudden, half instinctually, my nose was in the air, sniffing a strange odor coming from the surrounding bushes. Nearly the same, Amaril's tiny ears perked up. "Chiefy! Behind-!" I reacted in a second, being close to the Cleffa in question. I bowled the tiny star pokemon away from a tan blur emerging from the brush. It landed on me and I recognized the feline form as a Meowth. Pushing with all my strength, I knocked the cat off me and scrambled away to a suitable distance between the Meowth. Or Meowths. Three of them were surrounding us in the clearing. Effectively cutting off any escape we could get to Sam and Rae. I growled softly, communicating my frustration to Gold, who cracked his tiny knuckles in response.

At that moment we realized that we were the ones in charge of taking care of the younger, less experienced pokemon.

Then I realized I was most likely the least experienced of them all. This being my sixth day in the outside world. I shook that thought out of my head as I gently herded Igglybuff who was puffing up in preparation for battle behind Gold and me. I glanced back at the four other pokemon with a look that obviously said stay where you are.

Three against two.

This could be hard.

* * *

><p>Gold and I jumped at the two closest Meowth. I held my Meowth with unsheathed claws digging into his squared shoulders. He angrily jumped toward to get a hold of my neck fur but I was able to jump back using only my hind legs to secure my grip on him. I used my peripheral vision to locate the other Pokemon. The smaller Pokemon had created a defensive circle and Igglybuff was throwing punches in the air. Gold was handling the other Meowth with his signature left hook. Two Meowths were accounted for.<p>

Which means...

_Found him, _I thought dryly as I felt foreign pressure rake against my back. I tightened my grip on the first Meowth enabling me to kick back my legs and lash out at the second. Then, taking advantage of the diversion, I jumped away from them and landed close to Gold, who was facing off his opponent. I could tell he had also considered alerting Sam and Rae but dragging them into the situation wouldn't help in the least. Gold was breathing heavily and already had some bruises forming. He glanced at me.

"I'd ask how you're holdin' up but..." Gold remarked, eyes focused on his opponent.

"You think I look beat up? You should see the other guys!" I joked half-heartedly, humoring him. We both sprang back at our opponents. In midst of the battle I wasn't mindful and realized I had lost track of one of the Meowth. Again.

_Rookie mistake by a rookie._

My head swiveled around I saw him approaching the other pokemon.

"Gold!" I gasped, "cover me!"

The other Meowth was approaching the other pokemon. Upon seeing the predator, Amaril bravely tried to fend off the foe with a water gun as thick as her mouth. Impressive for such a small Pokemon, but Amaril's mouth was also unnaturally tiny. The Meowth was able to avoid the tiny waterstream without too much difficulty, though it did slow him down.

Trusting that Gold could handle the two Meowth in a pinch, I sprinted around the waterspout and took position in front of the Pokemon. Weedle ducked his head out from behind my leg and fired three poison stings in rapid sucession at one of the Meowth attacking Gold. The first two seemed to be virtually ineffective but following the third, a tiny spasm traveled through the Meowth's spine and a purple blush spread across its cheeks and under its eyes._ Poison._ Panicked, the Meowth streaked into the forest yowling.

Two against two.

Actually, I corrected myself, one and a half against two, accounting for my current condition.

Amaril was now buying me time to think up a way out of this by sending now stronger, quicker jets of water at the meowth. I noticed that was possible by Cleffa, whose body was surrounded by a tiny blue aura that was channeling into Amaril via her paws.

Igglybuff was puffing up and releasing big, transparent pink bubbles that produced a popping noise that would have been adorable if the situation had been different. One bubble was able to reach the ever-approaching Meowth's face. The creature, surprisingly, cried out and stopped to paw at his eye. Using this distraction, Amaril aimed a water gun at the meowth chest, forcing him to retreat several yards.

I felt Weedle tense and give off a flash of light. It soon became an unsteady pulse that only served to aggravate the offending meowth.

Then Missile contorted and shifted shape.

After a couple breathless seconds the little went away revealing a golden cacoon with black eyes.

"Missile?" I asked, still a little out of breath.

"Kakuna!" He replied with a proud tone of voice. His voice sounded deeper and a little more confident.

Meowth struggled to stand, noticing with pleasure that Amaril and Igglybuff seemed to be out of ammo.

Missile made a tiny squeak noise and widened his eyes when he noticed the Meowth approach.

'Okay so maybe not very much more confident' I thought to myself as I nudged the immobile Kakuna behind me with my hind leg and adjusted my postion so I was blocking the now exhausted mini pokemon from the pissed, soaked and angry cat. In meeting its gaze, I realized that I was on my last leg with this battle. My back was starting to sag and my body was begging to at least let my back legs fall. I stiffened all my muscles to prevent this. Gold was faring well and his opponent was worse for wear. Time to settle this. I dug my claws in the soily dirt and gritted my teeth. This would be the last attack.

I felt something prickling in the back of throat. I almost panicked when it traveled into my mouth. Then I realized it _tasted_ like power.

With the Meowth only a yard away, I unclenched my tensed jaw and realeasing a whispy, purple and gray energy ball, and all my strength with it, directly into meowth.

It was over.

Then the worst happened.

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><p><strong>Ha! Was gonna make this a cliff hanger but decided I'm a good person!<strong>

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><p>The energy ball, instead of hitting Meowth or exploding on impact, floated right through him. Paralyzed with shock and exhaustion, the Meowth charged and tackled me head on, knocking me into the air.<p>

As I spun through the air, I realized that tiny red droplets were splattering the dusky sky like red stars. Crap. That was not supposed to happen

I hit the ground, bounced and skidded. When I finally was released from the terrible law of interia, tried to stand and realized it was futile. I made panicked eye contact with Gold as my vision blurred in and out. He immediately redoubled the power of his attacks.

Things were getting foggy. Cleffa and the others, Igglybuff and Amaril pushing Missile, ran over to me and tried to help me stand. I couldn't even talk to tell her to run or hide or whatever I might plan if my brain was functioning normally.

This sensation...

Foggy...

The Meowth's eyes glinted with malice. He smirked and I noticed his fangs were glowing.

Was that... hyper fang?

...

Several things happened in the following seconds.

Meowth approached

Cleffa recoiled in terror

Missile tensed and narrowed his eyes

Gold's intake of breath was audible

My vision faded to black...

...

A crash.

My sight returned, though everything look abstract, little moving splotches of color.

Somehow, the Meowth had been repelled and was flying backwards through the air. He barreled into Meowth #2 and they tumbled into the undergrowth. A thud signified one had a direct collision with a tree and panicked yelps told me the cowards were running with their tails between their legs.

I reached out a paw in front of me and it was stopped a couple inches away. A ripple shuddered across what seemed to be an invisible force field then faded away. I noticed a glow around Missile fade too. Missile had saved all of us somehow.

"Thanks." My voice sounded raspy in my ringing ears and each blink was heavier.

I don't remember who Missile responded to me, but the last thing I was was Gold slowly limping over to us, bearing the slightest smile of grim victory.

...

_Darkness_

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><p><em><strong>REVIEW! Need two reviews to post the next chapter! Please tell me who is your favorite of Sam's Pokemon and favorite of Rae's Pokemon then your overall favorite.<strong>  
><em>

_**Extra Credit if you say why they are your favorite (ex: characteristics) I'll help me keep them in character which is super important!**_


	10. Back in Action?

**As promised, a new chapter after I got two more reviews (a total of 7!)**

**To answer a commenters comment on my last chapter of why in fact, Missile evolved so quickly is because he was a Weedle. Weedle evolve at level 7 and when he was caught, he was roughly level 5 or 6. So it's actually logical, not just a random thing I had to throw in to save the plot (heaven forbid).**

**Enjoy and review (it'll make me update faster! The next chapter's already written and I'll post it if I get 2 more reviews or more than a week passes.**

**If you don't like bad words skip the last word of the chapter btw.**

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><p>...What? Soft grass, the smallest wind?<p>

I looked around. The sky was a faded blue. No clouds made it seem as if there was no motion, save for the gust and slight trickle of the stream.

_Huh?_

_What happened-?_

Flashes came back causing me to stumble to my feet, and a sharp pain with it.

_Meowth's sneak attack._

_Gold covering two meowth_

_Missile evolving_

_Preparing that attack_

_Failing_

_Missile saving us_

_Blackness_

My mind frantically worked to knit these events together into something that made sense.

I was in my Pokeball. So what happened?

I stared at a side of my enclosure and was surprised when that part of the wall faded to transparence. I walked up to it, noticing another floating orb the same size as mine about a foot away from mine. It was almost completely blacked out but I could notice a dark figure sleeping curled up and the far wall.

It must be Gold's pokeball!

But, exhausted or lazy, I wasn't completely sure, I decided to go back to sleep after my shocking discovery and curled back up again and returned to the soft patch of grass. Ten seconds after I stopped staring at Gold's pokeball, the transparency vanished and gave way to the calming faded blue.

And I gave way to sleep.

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><p>THE POKEMON CENTER (2 hours later)<p>

Sam busied himself by clenching and unclenching his fists and running his hand through his hair as he watched the chansey clock tick time away. He leaned back against the plush bench and for the hundredth time, checked to see if the in-treatment sign had disappeared.

After finding their pokemon in the state they were in, Rae and him had rushed to the next town, only arriving half an hour ago.

Thank God Gold had finished his medical treatment ten minutes ago and was resting (he had only been allowed to see him briefly because he needed rest but Nurse Joy had promised he would be able to be with him soon). His beloved Eevee wasn't so lucky though.

_ Long ragged lacerations across her tiny back. Nova... what happened?_

Sam inhaled a sharp breath to prevent himself from crying in frustration, Nova and him had barely known each other for a week yet he felt his organs were tearing at themselves in anticipation of seeing her. How could that be?

"Sam..." Rae who was sitting next to him holding her Cleffa, put a hand on his shoulder. "Nova will be fine, she and Gold protected my Pokemon from those Meowth. Thank you."

Sam managed a tiny smile. "You can thank her when she wakes up." Then his smile faded. "How do you know they were Meowth?"

"That's easy," Rae explained, leaning back against the wall. "Some scientists say that Pokemon have an average IQ of 80 while a humans' is 100. Pokemon are strong, loyal and have good instincts while us humans are good with crafting strategies in tough situations as well as being the glue in a pokemon team. It's said to be the reason Pokemon and humans joined together in the first place you know.

"But I don't actually believe most of that, which is why I'm trying to train these pokemon. I think Pokemon are a lot smarter than they're given credit for. For example, a Cleffa communicates by saying variations of Cleffa and a Pikachu communicates with 'pikachu' yet they can not only understand each other but understand us perfectly. Thus leading me to believe that their method of communication is much more advanced and efficient than ours.

"There are also Pokemon known for their intelligence such as Cleffa. Thats why I taught Cleffa some ways to communicate with me."

* * *

><p><em>Flashback<em>

_"Cleffa, identify the attackers," Rae urged, kneeling down to her frazzled, crying young pokemon. Rae felt sick to her stomach seeing Sam's Pokemon in their current condition. Sam was stroking Nova and soothing the unconscious pokemon while he lay the barely conscious Gold in his lap. Her other two pokemon where bickering on what they should do to help the critical Eevee._

_"Please " Rae continued. Cleffa took a deep breath and took action._

_"Cle Fa-fa. Fa-fa-fa."_

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><p>"What does that mean?" Sam asked, clueless to her point.<p>

"I can communicate with Cleffa. I taught her the entire Pokedex. The number and corresponding pokemon. 'Cle' means five and 'fa' means one. What Cleffa told me translates to 'five one-one. one-one-one' which means 'five two. Three,'" she drew a breath, " that means 'Fifty-two. Three.' Pokemon #52 in the pokedex is Meowth. Three means how many there were."

"That's amazing." Sam said, astounded, definitely understanding how Rae's method of police Pokemon could be beneficiary.

"Thanks, I-" Rae blushed.

The operation doors opened and Nurse Joy came out, somehow managing to look completely composed and professional while exhausted. Sam was up in a second. Rae followed him over to Nurse Joy. Joy smiled reassuringly at Sam them.

"I began treatment on both your sandshrew and your Eevee. Your she's beautiful, the way." Joy began. Sad nodded impatiently.

"Your Sandshrew was bruised and throughly exhausted but he'll be fine in a couple days. Your Eevee suffered more extensive damage including three long lacerations and very nearly severe blood loss. Whoever you were battling against, she clearly wasn't trained well enough for. Her muscles were considerably over-exerted." Nurse Joy admonished.

"...Yeah." Sam said, not bothering to defend himself. "Where are they?"

"They're resting in room 4, you can go in now," Joy motioned to the room and watched Sam and Rae run in that direction.

Sam burst through the door. Two small hospital beds were side by side with a bench positioned on either side. Gold was sprawled on his back, sleeping with his mouth slightly ajar. He had been given light sedative to ensure that he didn't move too much before his bruises had time to start to heal.

Nova was lying on her side, her entire back wrapped in a bandage and an tiny IV and heart monitor around her bed.

Sam patted Gold's back with a sad smile and whispered a 'get well' before taking a seat near Nova's bed. Rae took a seat near Gold. She silently released Igglybuff and Amaril. Who, along with Cleffa, came over to Nova and started brushing their little paws through her tangled mane in a sign of gratitude.

'Why didn't she come to find me? Did they not believe I could protect them?' Sam couldn't help but think as he watched his faithful Pokemon sleep.

NIGHT (11 PM)

The world came in focus again. Ugh, everything felt distorted and I felt nauseous. I had to stop waking up this way. I noticed I was in a dark medical room.

_The Pokemon Center?_ I looked around

Gold, he looked fine now, save for a couple bruises.

Sam, thank goodness. I felt guilty for all the stress I was inadvertently putting him through.

Rae, sleeping soundly, leaning against the wall.

I shifted off her sore back a little more. I had extra weight on her for some reason. Three almost simultaneous yawns choruses from the proximity of my nape, which I realized, to my delight, was perfectly groomed.

I smiled. "Good morning, little guys," I ignored my raspy voice and focused on the cute pokemon rubbing their eyes.

When the three pokemon saw that I was awake, they looked at me with strangely teary, wide eyes.

"Bwaaaaa!" Sobbed Amaril and Cleffa while Igglybuff sniffled loudly.

"Wait! Wait! Don't cry!" I was shocked they would cry for me. This was the second time I had seen tears. The first being my brothers' when we were separated. After a few uneven gasps, the pokemon were able to calm down enough to retain tears.

"Now tell me whats the matter?" I shoothed while trying to assess the situation. Sam was sleeping next to us, clearly alive as was everyone else. Even Missile was asleep soundly in the corner, snug in his Kakuna shell, unless Missile _was _the shell, in which case...never mind.

"You...you..." Amarill began choppily.

"You're hurt!" Igglybuff blurted out, either fanning her face of flailing her arms. It was really quite hard to tell when one's arms were an inch long. "You got hurt saving us!"

Oh. That's what they were upset about.

"We're a team. We help each other out. That's what a team does." It felt good to say that. I felt I officially belonged now. "You guys will be in charge of taking care of everyone until Gold and I are on our feet again. Can you promise me you'll protect Sam and Rae?" I was getting tired again and my back was starting to pulse painfully but I needed to get my point across.

A chorus of 'I promise' echoed in my head as I adjusted my position again and fell asleep.

TWO DAYS LATER

I raked my paws at the grass in sheer frustration and boredom as I watched Sam train with Missile and Gold. Sam found an old sparring glove in the Pokemon Center and was helping Gold on his punches. Gold was almost completely healed. Missile was aiming poison stings at a target on a tree and practiced harden. Every once and a while Sam would come over and give him a light slap to test Missile's armor (practically rock-solid, as usual).

Rae was training with her Pokemon by having him trail a Ratatta (ugh!) They were currently confronting it and with a well combined attack, the purple Pokemon fainted.

Everyone was doing their hardest to train _except me_. My bandages had been changed a couple hours ago and my wounds were still deep.

_Maybe healed enough for a little training though._

I rose unsteadily to my feet, not having moved much in the last two days. I took the opportunity to stretch back each of my legs and made my way over to Sam and Gold.

"Nova? What are you doing?" Sam asked.

'I want to train.' I replied. Of course, Sam didn't understand my words but my intent was clear.

Sam shook his head and kneeled down. "I'm sorry Nova maybe later. You're still-" Sam was cut of by Gold stepping between them, pulling on his red boxing gloves.

"You're finally ready then? About time. Let's do this."

I swallowed nervously. Battles with Gold were never easy and she was only at 50%. I positioned myself in a battle pose I had adapted. Using it even helped calm me and give me more confidence.

I lowered my head close to the ground and put on foot in front of my face while the other was bent underneath my chest. My back legs were tensed and slightly less bent and my tail instinctually lashed impatiently behind me.

Sam got angry, which almost shocked me out of my battle stance. "Fine, Nova! You just got out of Urgent Care, it's not my fault if you hurt yourself again!" His eyes were misty.

'I'm sorry Sam' I said to him, now feeling guilty and selfish but wanting to battle to prove myself all the same.

Rae, hearing the commotion came over with her three Pokemon in tow.

"You shouldn't try to fight with your Pokemon's will. It's what defines them, trust me, working against your Pokemon is one of the worst mistakes you can make. Your Eevee is just trying to become strong for you. Trust her." She consoled him. "Let's just watch. Your Sandshrew won't go out of his way to hurt her."

They all sat down on the sidelines to watch.

I made eye contact with Gold. This was my third battle with him. I had to be very careful not to aggravate my injury though. That could mean an instant loss.

In a second, the battle began.

Gold charged at me with his fist posed to deliver a strong punch. I dipped underneath him, using my smaller size to my advantage. Now at his side, I hesitated, unsure what to do. Enough time for Gold to slam me so I did a half tumble away. I took notice that Gold gave me sufficient time to get back up.

"Ya know we're tied, right?" Gold drawled easily, waiting for me to show signs of attacking him.

I realized he was talking about the first battle when I won and the second where he won.

"Yeah." I said before charging. I feinted a tackle and instead hit him with a scratch. And he hit me with a sound punch in the chest. We both stumbled back. I shook my head to counter the hit as he brought his gloved fist to his face and checked the pink scratch for blood.

He narrowed his eyes and spoke with a suspicious tone. "You didn't unsheathe your claws."

"Personal preference." I told him, trying to act indifferent. He studied me for a second. With a shiver of panic, I realized he knew not wanting to injure him was only one reason. The other was that I didn't want to make someone go through what I had very recently gone through. It still hurt. _Bad._

It wasn't like that would stop me though. Not a chance.

I charged at him with a strong tackle. Unprepared, wasn't able to put up defenses. I felt a millisecond of pure satisfaction.

Then the recoil of the attack.

My spine curled upon impact. I let out a huff of air and toppled onto the downed Gold. I lay there for a second collecting my breath. _Ow ow ow ow._

Gold collected himself first and somehow managed to pull himself to a sitting position while I was still on top of him. I was now sprawled across his lap, teeth gritted through stupid spasms of pain.

Gold's ear twitched irritably. "Get offa me, Rusty." Gold grouched, trying to push me off. I let out a squeal of pain and snapped my eyes shut and gave a low whine as he gave me another tiny nudge just to make sure I couldn't possibly be rolled off of him. Sam ran up to us and gently scooped me into his arms.

"You did great, Nova. You're so much stronger," Sam praised, scratching me behind the ear and he adjusted me in his arms as to not strain my back. Lately my back's been more trouble than it's worth. Wait, thats not true.

"Rae, I'm gonna bring Nova back to the Pokemon Center, can you watch Gold and Missile for me?" Rae nodded.

"Hey, Gold." I began and Sam stopped moving away so I could talk. He's so great.

"Eh?"

"For the record I won." I told him, a smile crossing my face.

"Pff. Not a chance, Rusty." Gold snorted. _How mature_. The smile fell from my face and a scowl took its place, totally ruining the mood.

"You better watch your back, Ground-type."

Now it was Gold's turn to scowl. His type was a sore spot for him because he couldn't dig or really do anything a regular ground type could for some reason he absolutely refused to explain to me. "Oi! Rusty, in case you haven't noticed, my back's made of _brick_."

_Dang, he's good._

I childishly decided to stick out my tongue at him. Woah. Getting foggy again.

_Oh no, do **not** black out with your tongue sticking out. No. Come on Nova, just put your tongue back before you black-_

Damn.

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><p><strong>Review for another chapter people! I love you and feel free to make suggestions, rate characters, or ask questions. S'all good.<strong>


	11. Duo to Trio

**Sorry for the absence of updates. I was checking the page every couple of days checking for updates real ****optimistically, but it'll happen when it happens and I'm even annoying myself with this review obsession I have. This story nearly has 1,000 overall views and thats not real bad!**

**Also, the title sounds like 'Dugtrio', so I like that yay!**

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><p>ANOTHER TWO DAYS<p>

Finally I could leave the Pokemon Center.

To say Nurse Joy had not been happy to see me back so soon was an understatement. Thankfully, I was almost entirely better. The bandages had been taken of thanks to the persistent healing of Nurse Joy and her Chansey. Unfortunately, to my horror and Gold's delight, there were three long patches across my back without fur. Nurse Joy promised it wouldn't even be noticeable in a few days, but I couldn't stop thinking about how Professor Oak would have flipped his lid if he'd been here to see it.

Sam and I walked through the streets of Pewter City. It was really interesting because it was built in the middle of a canyon and surrounded by rocks. I'd never seen so many in my life. It was a far cry from a nice grassy meadow, but Gold seemed to like it. Sam told me there was a Gym in the town for rock Pokemon. We decided we had some training to do before hand but that led us to another problem. We had not only used all of Sam's food money, but Rae's also. A tanned old man with spiky brown hair had directed us to a bulletin board.

*Wanted: Professional Calligrapher for wedding invites Pay: 2000 P

_Not with my tiny paws. Maybe a smeargle._

*Wanted: Fashion Consultant at Tang Manor. Pay: 50,000 P/month

_Yeah right._

*Wanted: Bodyguard. Req. able to defeat all household pokemon. Pay: Protiens, carbos and 'sufficient' food and shelter

_Definite no._

*Wanted: Fire pokemon for a tiki torch party. Pay:870 P

_Let me just get a fire stone..._

*Wanted: At least three trainers to clean mansion in the northwest corner. Pay: 500 per person

1. Kurt Steel

2.

3.

4.

..._it could work..._

Sam sighed in relief when he discovered that there was a job we were qualified for.

"Jeez, how bad can a house be if it needs at least three trainers just to clean?" Rae asked while signing her name neatly under Sam's scrawl.

When we arrived, there was a note posted to the door

_Trainers,_

_Thanks for coming and sorry I can't help. You can get started on sweeping and scaring off the 'visitors'. There are plenty of brooms in the closet. If possible, please repair the table in the foyer. I will be back at 6 PM to pay provided said tasks are performed._

_Thanks, Flint_

Easy enough. Sam opened the door.

Maybe not.

The floor was caked with dust and overrun by spinarak webs. I noticed movement across the floor. Ratatta. He wanted the 'visitors' gone right?

"Oi! Nova! Don't get lost!" Sam called after me as I chased the thing up two flights of stairs, nearly slipping on the dust and tripping anything in my path, sneezing like crazy. Finally, I was able to corner him in a bedroom and grab him. I shook him fiercely to knock him unconscious and it worked so he must have been weak. Really weak. I carried him down stairs to show Sam much like someone else would flaunt a trophy.

"Great work, Nova!" Sam praised, (wouldn't have said that if he knew the mess I made of the house) "Maybe I should catch him..." I growled frustratedly at the horrid plan Sam had thought of and promptly brought the purple mouse to the window, ready to toss him (we were on the ground level, any higher and Sam would've been angry_)_.

"Uh, I guess not. Sorry Nova. Just put him in this cage and we'll relocate them to the forest after we're done."

I dropped the fazed mouse in the cage and swiveled my head towards the door. It was opening.

In walked a boy, maybe 13, with spiky brown hair and a camouflage bandana. He had bright green eyes and lean but defined muscles and wore a fitted black t-shirt and tan cargo pants.

"You guys the 'Sam' and 'Rae' on the sign up sheet?"

"Yeah. And you're Kurt?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. This gonna be a lot easier with more man power." He said, sighing in relief.

"Might as well get to work, we have five hours and three floors." Rae pointed out. Sam and Kurt nodded.

"Go Gold!" Sam called out, throwing the Pokeball. His hand wavered over Missile's Pokeball before remembering that a Kakuna can't much good in the situation, being immobile and all. So instead, he handed Gold a tiny broom and directed me to help sweep, which I did with my tail. Kurt walked behind me and bent to my level so he was sitting on his heels as he stared at me with his hand on his chin.

"What kind of Pokemon is this?" He asked skeptically, as if Sam had just taken another Pokemon and just dressed it up to look like a discolored Eevee.

"Her name's Nova, she's an eevee." Sam said from where he was attempted to sweep around Cleffa and Azurill who were assisting and performing water gun to scrub the floors. Igglybuff was slightly farther blowing transparent blue bubbles which popped and released a few water droplets on the wall to clean dust off.

"I've seen pictures of eevee before and this ain't one of 'em." Kurt argued stubbornly.

"She's kind of like a Shiny eevee, but different." Sam scowled as he explained albeit poorly.

"Hmm." Kurt said as he got back up and grabbed a broom. "Go Abra!" He said as he released a strange blue and yellow Pokeball.

Out came a gold and brown Pokemon who looked light on its feet but not entirely there. Surprised, I scrambled over to it. How strange looking. Terrified of seeing me, its eyes opened in wide circles without pupils and it disappeared. My breath caught as I looked around. _So fast!_

Then I heard laughter coming from Kurt who had his fists on his hips and head titled back. Behind him was his Abra.

"Haha. Don't worry, Shiny, Abra ain't fast, he's teleporting. He's too much of a coward to fight you." I huffed in embarrassment and returned to work. Gold and I entertained ourselves by sneakily approaching Abra while sweeping and making a sudden noise behind or near him (Gold would drop his broom and I would sneeze or sigh loudly). He would let out a terrified 'Abra!' and teleport to the opposite side of the room. Some may call it teasing but we preferred 'training' after all, he was definitely getting his exercise (and we were getting laughs).

"So what's your money for?" Sam asked.

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows. " Me and Abra were exploring Diglet Cave-we're big time Poke Adventurers—when some people in uniforms mugged us. All our money and all our food, so we had to return here to buy some more materials. That's why Abra's been a little more jumpy than usual."

Now I felt a little guilty for giving Abra such a hard time.

"Poke Adventurer? Thats cool! I'm trying to be a Pokemon Master and Rae wants to train Police Pokemon."

"Ambitious." Kurt remarked. "If I had battle Pokemon I wouldn't hafta pay for a _trainer_ to help me get through Diglet Cave." Kurt spat the word 'trainer' and Abra mewed sadly. Kurt grabbed Abra in a head lock, which made Abra start to spaz out.

"Bra bra bra bra!"

Kurt grinned largely. "Noogie!" Kurt noogied Abra so hard smoke started coming from Kurt's hand. "Don't worry buddy, afterwards, I promise I'll train ya. We'll be even better Adventurers then."

Everyone sweat-dropped looking at the two until Sam picked out an important piece of the conversation.

"You want trainers to accompany you? Do you want to help us with our journey? My destination's the Pokemon League." Sam offered.

Kurt thought about it for a second. "I request a sidebar." He said as he ran to a corner followed by his teleporting Abra. They whispered frantically and I had to wonder if they could actually understand each other or they were just stupid.

"Alright. We accept your offer. What's the plan?" Kurt inquired. Judging by Abra's shock and following face palm, that was the opposite point he was trying to communicate.

_Okay, they're just stupid._

Sam smiled. "We can leave as soon as I get a Boulder Badge."

"So I'll be a while, huh?" Kurt laughed.

**5:35**

After a lot of Ratatta chasing, sweeping and mopping up extra water, we were finally done. Well, almost done.

"Crap, he forgot to repair the cabinet." Sam groaned as we where finishing up.

"Easy peasy." Kurt said, through three nails he was holding in his mouth, throwing up a hammer wand catching it single handedly. "We'll have it done in less than 10."

Abra nodded, holding a large square of sandpaper.

Sure enough within 10 minutes, they had almost entirely refinished the entire cabinet, including replacing rusted nails, smoothing out warped wood and applying new surface enamel. It looked shiny and new again.

We were all sitting against the wall, exhausted, when Flint came inside. He was a middle-aged man with tan skin and spiky hair who also looked incredibly familiar. He looked around, impressed.

"Wow, congratulations, you guys did a great job!" Flint said, passing out the promised Poke.

"Thank you sir, but if you don't mind us asking, why did you buy such a large abandoned house?" Sam inquired.

Flint face almost aged at the question. "I...made a mistake a long time ago and made a rash decision. I fully regret it now but, I'm worried it's too late. But if it isn't then I think this is a great place for my family to live with me. Much better than the house they live in now..." Flint composed himself but for some reason, Sam's face was contorted in anger. "Thanks for your help and have a good rest of the day." Flint finished, unaware of Sam's anger.

At the door, Sam turned around, "If you really are sorry then be sorry and ask—_beg_ for forgiveness. Don't wait. Time makes it worse." I was shocked. Sam could barely control the venom in his voice and as he walked out, he shoved his portion of the money on the table.

YET ANOTHER TWO DAYS

I was really getting to like Kurt and Abra (I even stopped intentionally scaring him) and got closer to Sam, Gold, Missile, Rae, Igglybuff, Azurill, and Cleffa. I had been out in the world for twelve days now and its been amazing. Like heck I'll ever go back. Kurt showed us a training place at the base of a mountain. It was basically what Sam described as a 'high ropes course'. A rope bridge five feet above the ground with increasingly large gaps followed by a climb up ten feet of rock wall with thick groves to assist the climb. Then as a finale, a walk across a wobbly suspended log with swinging rocks the size of my head. And across all of it, the towering canyon almost always had small stones falling across the extent of the training course.

"Well, who's first?" Kurt laughed.

"How about everybody does it?" Sam suggested. "It can be a race to which team gets the fastest collective time."

Minutes later, all the contestants were prepared. Me, Gold, the Police Pokemon and Abra. Rae handed out ribbon for each team member. Team Sam was blue, Team Kurt green and Team Rae pink. I had Sam tie mine around my forehead like a ninja. Rae pulled out a stopwatch and a pen and paper. "Alright first up is Gold from Team Sam *cough*lame*cough*" Rae announced.

Gold finished tying his ribbon around his waist so it looked like a karate belt. 'Shrew!' He positioned himself.

"Go!"

Running on all fours, he was able to make the leaps easily as none of the holes were longer than him.

"15 seconds!" Rae announced.

Gold started scaling the wall, strongly plunging his fists in the cracks and widening them. He wasn't as fast with this part, but even being pelted by falling stones didn't bother his rock hard head. When he reach the log, he simply rolled into a ball and went through the swinging rocks.

"Wow! 55 seconds. Amazing, even if Team Sam is still lame..." Rae announced, dodging Sam's elbow.

"Great job Gold! Way to set a standard!" Sam cheered.

I lifted up my paw like Gold taught me and Gold high-fived it even though when I stretched out my leg, it was considerably lower than Gold's paw.

"Let's see you follow that, Rusty." He said pompously.

"Easily," I returned, now accustomed to my habitual banter with Gold.

"Next up is one of the best, Igglybuff! Team Rae!" Rae was being a little biased...

Igglybuff had a bow tied around the tuft of fur on the top of her head and was rolling around adorably.

"Ready, set, win—I mean go!" Rae said clicking her stop watch.

Igglybuff puffed up and slowly gained elevation and floated all the way through the course, not touching the course even once.

"You think that's cheating too, right?" Gold leaned over to ask me.

"Definitely." I replied still watching the puffy Igglybuff.

"And Igglybuff finishes at an impressive 1 minute 23 seconds!"

Cleffa and Azurill ran over and cheered as loud as they could.

"Next up is Azurill!" Rae announced.

"Rill rill!" Azurill cheered, preparing to start.

"Ready, set, go!" Rae said, starting the stop watch. "Do Kanto Police Force proud!"

Azurill jumped back onto her tail and started bouncing higher and higher and started jumping from wooden plank to wooden plank. She jumped high into the air to pass the final gap, a two foot gorge. And—unfortunately, miscalculated the distance and fell on the ground, completely dazed.

"And...uh Azurill is given a two-second penalty-" Rae began but both Kurt and Sam grabbed the twig she was broadcasting with and yelled "Disqualified!"

"Fine, fine," Rae said, recovering her microphone-stick and crossing out the spot for Azurill score and going over to pick the downed water pokemon.

"Next is Cleffa!"

Cleffa started off with a good start, but when _she_ got to the two foot hole, she stopped a together and just stared at it.

15 seconds passed.

"Oi! You do realize this is a race right?" Gold shouted up to her, annoyed.

Finally Cleffa came to conclusion and climbed onto the rope railing holding the bridge together and tip toed across with the grace of a tight roper.

"And Cleffa finishes in... 2 minutes 12 seconds." Rae said, trying to keep up her exuberance.

"Next up is Nova from Team Sam!"

_My turn._

"Well at least we don't have to worry about Team Rae winning," I joked as I climbed up to the starting spot.

"-And, Go!"

I jumped over the first and second, almost hesitated on the third but made it. Here comes the hard one, The one twice my length. The only Pokemon that actually managed to jump over it was Gold, who was twice my size. With a sinking feeling, I realized that I wasn't gonna make it. My paws grappled for a hold on the board, pressing hard until they found a tiny groove to dip into it. I grabbed the rope rail with my teeth and slowly brought myself over the wooden edge. I heard cheering distantly as I poured all my concentration into his one task. I was able to lift up my back leg onto the plank, followed by my front leg. Exhausted, I rolled up onto the plank and took a half second to get my breath before jumping up and running.

"And Nova finishes part one in 25 seconds!"

_Damn, I'm 10 seconds behind Gold already..._

Since I was considerably lighter than Gold however, I had an easier time grabbing on the holes in the mountain and only was deterred when I looked down.

A whopping 15 feet above the ground. I couldn't move. Sam, noticing my nervousness, walked underneath the wall.

"I'll catch you if you fall, Nova."

I trusted Sam, so it was enough to scale the last two feet and jump over to the swinging rocks death trap. I crawled as low to the plank as I could go until I realized the third rock swung only a couple inches above the ground. I jumped up to avoid it and nearly got hammered by it. Now scared, I sprinted blindly past the fourth which swung behind me a second late.

"Finish! 1 minute 10 seconds!"

I jumped off the platform about five feet tall and landed in Sam's arms.

'Vee-e!' I purred.

"That was amazing, Nova, we'll win for sure."

"Don't count on it." Kurt said behind us.

"Huh?"

"Abra from Team Kurt, And, Go!" In a flash Abra teleported a couple feet past the finish line.

"...And Abra finishes in half a sec-" Rae began, astonished.

"Wait!" Sam said, letting me down to join Team Sam (really just Gold). Sam pointed to Abra and the finish line. "Abra never _passed_ the finish line. He _teleported_ past it."

Kurt realizing this, yelled to his Abra. "Cross the finish line, hurry!"

Abra stood up and took a step. A small stone came tumbling down on his head. Abra stopped moving and widened his eyes.

"You think he's dead?" I finally asked Gold. He shrugged.

We looked back to see Abra fall to ground, unconscious.

"Really?" Gold said.

"He's not very strong..."

"Abra!" Kurt ran up to Abra. "He's not much of a fighter yet..." He defended.

"Winner is Team Sam!" Rae announced, choking back a laugh.

* * *

><p><strong>Tell me what you think and wish me luck on finals tomorrow!<br>Merry Christmas!**

**Or any other holiday you celebrate!**


	12. Dunefairy Project

**New chapter. Longest yet! (3.5k)**

* * *

><p>After a long day of training, we headed back to the Pokemon Center. I immediately sprawled on the lawn chair in the back with everyone else.<p>

"I'm hungry..." Rae complained.

"We'd have enough money if Sam didn't decide to throw away the cash," Kurt said pointedly.

"Whatever," Sam grouched.

"Hey, are you Pokemon Trainer?" A voice said from close to them. Sam snapped open his eyes.

"Yeah," He said unsure what to say.

"Alright then, I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!" A boy with wavy, blonde hair and a purple beret with a white suit said, holding a very high tech Pokedex emitting pac-man noises.

"A-a Pokemon battle?"

"Yeah, haven't you ever been in one?"

"Not yet."

"Huh, well usually I like to have special types of battles to spice it up, but if this is your first, lets make it normal. Three on three."

"Sure." Sam jumped up and the other guy walked away to make enough room for a battle field.

"I'm Gauge." He said, holding up a Pokeball as he turned around.

"Sam."

"I'll go first." Gauge released a Ratatta.

"Alright," Sam said, pulling out a Pokeball, knowing I didn't like Ratatta, so I just stayed a couple feet behind him, lying on the lawn chair.

"I choose Missile!" Sam yelled arcing his arm in a throw. He released the Pokeball just as it passed the highest point causing it to fly high and fast. Missile materialized.

"Kuna kuna!" Missile chanted.

(Trainer Sam vs. Gamer Gauge)

"Missile, use harden!" Missile glinted silver before turned much more sturdy looking.

"Ratatta, growl!"

"Ha! Missile's attack is nearly nothing yet anyway, that didn't do anything!" Sam taunted immaturely and Rae and Kurt tried to laugh at the exuberant trainer.

"Missile harden again!"

"Tackle!"

It connected but barely affected Missile at all, Ratatta felt more dazed than anything. I cheered.

"Ratatta get up close and use Scratch!"

"Missile, give him a stream of Poison Stings!"

Ratatta being so close was only able to dodge half of the dozen Missile was able to shoot.

"Fall back, Rattata!" He jumped back but cringed. He was poisoned. "Ratatta! Bite!" The poisoned Pokemon charged at Missile as fast as he could, eyes fevered, by fainted a couple inches in front Kakuna.

"Ratatta, return. Good work." He said, recalling his weakened Pokemon. "Go, Paras!"

"Paras, use sleep powder!" Blue spores floated out of the crab Pokemon's back and Missile's black eyes started to droop.

"Missile! You can do this!" I cheered, but his eyes closed at he started to snore.

"Now Paras, leech life!" Small seeded entered Kakuna and seemed to replenish Paras's color. Missile fainted and was recalled.

"Let's go, Gold."

'Shrew shrew!' Gold said, balling his paws into fists.

"Be careful of sleep powder," Sam warned, " Use Swift!"

Gold shot a flurry of stars out of his mouth. Paras dodged to the side but last second the barrage of stars switched directions and nailed it in the face. As soon as the Paras's vision cleared, Gold punched him on his back and the Paras fainted.

"Return! Go, Squirtle!" The tiny turtle Pokemon appeared, which I recognized as the one that was picked a couple of days before she had met Sam by an out-of-towner. Rare, but not overly weird.

"He's so cute!" Rae gushed.

"Thank y- oh you mean my Squirtle." Gauge blushed.

"Squirtle, Water Gun!" It hit Gold right in the chest, leaving him worse for wear.

"You better give up! My Squirtle's attacks are super effective!"

"We're not done yet, Gold, sand attack then defense curl!"

"Water gun!" This time, the water wasn't able to get through Gold's brick armor.

"Rollout, let's go!" Sam said, pumping his fist in the air. Unable to see, Squirtle's next water gun missed. I could barely tell

Gold's rapid spin seemed to be approaching Squirtle with frightening velocity, but then something weird happened. Squirtle didn't even bother to pinpoint direction Gold was coming from, he quickly aimed a water gun in a seemly random direction but when the sand cleared, Gold lay wet and unconscious on the ground.

After the shock passed, I realized what happened and pointed it out to the still shocked Sam. Squirtle had used water gun on the ground from roughly the spot Gold had curled up to the spot to himself, creating a mini-mud slide that would have ensured that Gold would come from there, being pulled into the mud's direction, unknowingly.

Sam gritted his teeth and recalled Gold.

"It's all up to you Nova!" I lept up from the chair and jumped in front of him. Gauge's eyes widened at my strange color and Sam and I instantly knew that it would throw him off for a second at least, putting us at an advantage.

"Nova! Tackle!" I charged at Squirtle when something weird happened. My limbs seemed to become more flexible and lean and snap back into place neatly and before I knew it, I realized I was hurtling towards the Squirtle with frightening speed. I instantly knew I was moving at about 15 mph, amazing for some Pokemon whose legs were about six inches long.

Rae must have recognized...whatever the heck was going on right now because Sam said "Nova, Quick Attack!"

Something clicked and I sped up even more. I connected with Squirtle with my entire body versus only my head to lessen the impact across my body and quickly jumped away, about five feet away. Squirtle began to release a water gun in my direction, but using the speed I had left from Quick Attack, I spun on my front legs and narrowly avoided the attack. I growled at him, waiting for Sam's next command.

"Way to go Nova! Nail 'em with a Tackle!"

I charged, this time, not as fast but the attack carried more force and the Squirtle fell back, defeated. I stood over him overcome with accomplishment and turned back and ran at Sam. Just as I reached him, he scooped me up and held me in the air before bringing me to his face. I licked his face.

"Aww! Nova, come on!" Sam protested, trying to move his head away and failed.

"Good job. Next time we meet we'll have a more interesting battle," Gauge said fixing his hat and handing over 200 Poke.

"So long, I'm heading out."

"Aren't you gonna battle the Gym?" Sam asked.

"Nah. I don't want to play by their rules, I do things a little differently. He winked and headed for the forest.

"Wait, you don't have any Pokemon left, how are you gonna go through the forest?"

Gauge didn't respond and just kept walking after shrugging indifferently.

"Strange guy..." Rae spoke up.

We went to the Pokemon Center, revived Missile and Gold and all of us passed out in a spare room in the back.

I yawned and rolled around on my back to stretch as I woke up. The light was dim and it was foggy outside. I almost went back to sleep when Kurt barged into the room waving a flyer so violently the paper protested with loud crinkles.

"I know what we're doing today!" He announced loudly, jarring Sam and Rae awake. Rae quickly sat up in bed, slamming her face into the top bunk with an unpleasant smack.

"OW! Whabbya wanb Kurt. Is earbly!" Rae said, holding her nose and blinking away tears.

Kurt ignored her. "I found this old pamphlet underneath my bed about an old training ground near a cliff! The terrain is awesome for training! Abra and I just checked it out!"

My ears perked up at the idea of training but Sam just groaned so I climbed onto his face and stomped on it a couple times.

"Fine! Fine! If Nova's in, I am too. Lets go," Sam conceded, getting out of bed and throwing on his jacket. Rae, in too much pain to go back to sleep, put on her red short sleeve shirt with a breast pocket on over her blue tank top.

In minutes, we were beginning the rocky ascent up the mountain, eating bagels. Mine had baked Peacha berry and quite honestly was completely amazing. There were a growing amount of ledges with naturally formed steps about two feet tall. I was able to navigate through them finding small crevices or stepping on Gold, much to his displeasure. Sam carried Missile because he wanted him to be able to join them. Missile looked very happy to be out of his Pokeball. I would be too.

"How much longer?" Rae groaned after 10 minutes of scaling.

"I don't know! Abra teleported us!" Kurt called back.

"Why can't he teleport us now?" She whined.

"There's too many of us and he's already exhausted from teleporting me all the way over there."

Sam groaned.

20 minutes later

"...At least we all got a good workout..." Sam said, trying to placate Rae as Igglybuff wheezed like she had athsma.

I had to admit though, the place was pretty great. You really had to be careful where you stepped, but it was awesome.

Kurt grew a little sheepish and Abra shifted his weight nervously for a second.

"We were wondering..."

We looked over.

"If you could train Abra for me."

'Ve!' I exclaimed, wagging my tail and looking at Sam.

"Sure we'll help you," Sam told him an Kurt looked relived.

"Thanks guys, I owe ya one" He sighed, "Let's try hard 'kay?" He said to Abra.

'Abra!'

Gold whipped out his old red boxing gloves from God knows where. Or should I say _Gold_ knows where haha...

Abra hesitantly walked over to join us.

"Hope you're ready fer this." Gold muttered. "You're good enough at running away so I guess we don't need to practice dogding... just try to block my punches." Gold aimed a punch at Abra's stomach and Abra's arms briefly fluttered everywhere _but_ where Gold was aiming and he ended up getting socked in the gut.

"I can't believe you cant block that with such fast reflexes. Here, this is how you block a punch to the stomach." Gold shifted his stance to his right leg was bent in front and his left was behind him as extra support. His arm was straight and angled downward above his leg. "It's front stance." Gold described as if that would be obvious. Realizing I really couldn't help with what they were learning as I didn't have arms, I loped over to see how Team Rae was faring.

Amarill was shooting up little sprays of water to hit leaves off of a small tree. Rae had her hands extended, one out to both of the other Pokemon. Each of them was using them for punching the palm of her hand.

I walked up to Rae.

"I can take over for you if you want." I told her.

'Eevee vee eva eevee.' Was what she heard up she seemed to understand so it all worked out.

"You wanna help? Thanks Nova!" She said absentmindedly rubbing her palms that had tiny red spots in the middle of each. She gave me a quick stroke and ran over to the guys whose Kakuna training session had quickly diminshed to something else entirely. Sam had had the idea to toss rocks into the air to see if Missile could hit them but when Kurt had joined him he decided to put a rock on his head and Kurt had barely escaped without a new hairdo. They were now throwing rocks at each other to trying to get Missile to aim at the other in a game of russian roulette. It was all poos and giggles until there was a smoking hole in Kurt bandana a quarter inch from his head. That and Rae had scooped up a pile of rocks and tossed to pile at the boys who jumped behind a large rock to avoid both Missile's attacks and the raining rocks.

I shifted my attention back to the Police Pokemon who were all patiently sitting in front of me.

"Okay, let's see what you got. Give it everything you have." I told them, taking my battle stance. The three chibi Pokemon looked at each other and nodded in determination. Amarill bounced off her tail and shot up into the air but I didn't have time to wonder as the other two both ran the other two directions. Until then, I hadn't realized how in sync they were. I was like they each shared half a personality that came out during battle and the other half were totally unique, seen when they were playing. It was like their minds were radio stations and they were all tuned into the same wavelength.

Suddenly Igglybuff and Cleffa appeared in front of me but before I could bat at them, they started to jump from one foot to another, rubbing there cheeks.

_So cute!_

I managed to stop my paw from bowling them over just in time. The cute little puffs were okay. Hurting them would be like stomping on a marshmellow. The longer I looked at them, I noticed a rosy pink haze emitted from them until a foggy look surrounded everywhere I looked. It was getting harder to see them. I walked up to them so I wouldn't lose them but right before I licked their foreheads. But I got an unpleasant surprise.

A punch to the face.

_Ow. _

At least an adorable little Pokemon punched me. That's good.

...Wait why is that good?

I couldn't think.

Oh! A pink bubble! It's sooooo cute!

It hit me in the face.

Ugh. Don't feel good. Kinda gross. A little nauseous.

The bitter taste in my mouth disrupted the ethereal feeling I had been feeling and my head started to clear.

I could see the outlines of Igglybuff and Cleffa through the pink fog that I was beginning to think wasn't actually there.

But heck if it didn't make a good a good camouflage.

Camoflague? They're pink...but not Amarill. I turned my head around, looking for the blue Pokemon. I remembered Amarill had jumped up so I looked up. A stream of water hit my face and I had to spit out all the water.

Enough messing around. These guys clearly had gotten stronger since the Meowth attack a week ago. They must have been training hard when I was out of commission. I wasn't sure if this would have an effect or even where to aim, but I started to charge up my Shadow Ball.

I, in a lapse of judgement, I decided to not aim it, but let it explode. Or... it kinda did it itself because I had no idea where to aim it.

The explosion knocked my brain clean of the smog and I slowly pulled myself up. Cleffa and Amarill were lying on the ground winded but Igglybuff looked fine. I realized that maybe normal types weren't effected by it for some reason. It didn't work on the Meowth either...

Everyone who was apparently was watching us got back to work when they saw we were okay (sans Gold and Abra because Gold didn't stop for the explosion).

After resting with the Police Pokemon and discussing strategy that was over Amarill and Igglybuff's heads with Cleffa, I realized that Cleffa had at least ten other plans in case anything unexpected happened. We even thought up a strategy together and dubbed it NovaFairy Project.

"Rusty, git over here," Gold beckoned me over with his stubby hand. The humans joined us as well as Gold and I faced off against Abra. So it was going to be a semi-official Pokemon battle...

"Ready Nova, Gold?" Sam called.

We prepared to spring.

"Let's...not lose, Abra!" Kurt encouraged.

"Nova, Gold divide!" We ran two different directions onto the sides of Abra.

There was a second of hesitation before Sam decided on the next command.

"Nova, use Helping Hand, Gold, Pound!" I channeled energy towards Gold and could almost see a transparent grey funnel of energy join us as Gold ran at Abra with a punch. Abra teleported behind him and used a downward block.

"Don't block, stupid, you're supposed to attack!" Gold growled as he spun around and aimed another punch which only clipped the edge of his side.

"Nova, assist Gold!"

I jumped in closer and helped block off Abra's movements, effectively trapping him. He seemed to have used up his PP for Teleport so he wasn't nearly as evasive now. After blocking him from escaping a couple, times I could tell Abra was getting frustrated. So was Kurt who knew Abra only had one move. Even Kakuna, who was at Sam's feet looked vigilant in watching the training. The training surface was difficult, jumping from rock to rock, though they were spaced relatively close together, and staying at least ten feet from the edge at all times. I blocked off Abra's movements again, having an advantage by watching his feet. Something seemed a little off so I looked up. Abra's eyes glowed purple and for a couple seconds, I was entranced. Abra's voice came into my head though he didn't speak.

"Forewards, Gold, backwards, I up, ground, down, sky." Everything hazed and the ground moved 45 degrees onto its side. I shifted into the new balance but it still felt wrong somehow. Weird sounds of caterpie filled my ears, blanketing other sounds.

Was one of my paws turning into a weedle?

Was it Sidney the weedle?

No, it's just a paw. My paw. I looked around for Abra I saw him sinking into the ground then floating above the ground. His legs and arms switched places and when I looked at him, he looked like a kalideoscope. I turned towards Gold. He was closer than I thought. Maybe five feet away? Or is it just another sandshrew calling my name confusedly?

But what if he wasn't confused, he was just hungry? Did he want baked beans or-

"Dunumubaua, usde tabernacle nose!" Was that Sam. Did he forget my name? My name's...well no time for that now, he wants me to attack. The sandshrew resembling Gold, now stroking a small Magikarp protested as I charged at Kalideoscope-face. I was charging, right? Not moving sideways. Before I hit him he either cartwheeled, triple flipped, or dodged to the side. Under my paws, I felt squishy rocks under my feet fall and I lost my grip. I started free falling spinning head over paw. Everything more nauseous now, like a tilt-a-whirl. Were there giant rock islands in the sky, how strange. Maybe I would grow wings? I glimpsed the ground and most the fuzziness in my brain dissipated.

Oh great Mew, I was falling to my death. The revelation gave my heart a shock and sent terror through my spine. I screwed my eyes shut.

FFWUMMPP!

I collided. As soon as I did I lost another five feet of altitude. So l hadn't landed of the ground. This was more squishy. And now it was trying to gain altitude.

I opened my eyes in surprise as my ears finally registered the super-fast wing beats.

I was on a Beedrill.

I was rescued and now laying sprawled on the back of the bug Pokemon how was flying in an unsteady circle, slowly gaining altitude before dropping back down a little from an missed wing-stroke.

Weedle, Kakuna then...

"Missile?" I asked raising my head and pulling myself into a less precarious position by hooking my claws in the Beedrill's torso fur.

The Beedrill gave a shy laugh. "How did you guess?" He though for a second and added, "are you okay now?"

"It's all good." I reassured him, mentally trying to make myself lighter, "thanks for saving me. Did you evolve just for that?"

"It would be hard to fly as a Kakuna." Missile replied, quite possibly making his first joke even if the deleivery could use a little work.

I smiled. "Thanks." We finally reached the altitude of the edge and Missile half-crash landed only six inches from the ledge. "Good thing there was an upwind..." He muttered.

"Nova! Missile!" Everyone surrounded them. Sam gave both of us a big hug and gushed his excitement of having a fully evolved Beedrill.

Pretty soon we were all relaxing under the cool shade of trees.

"So what happened Nova? You charged at Abra when he was three feet away from the cliff but then you started to curve of and slipped off." Sam asked worriedly. I buried my nose into his leg reassuredly.

"Abra learned the move Confusion. You might have noticed Nova was swaying back and forth before you gave the command. I heard trainers with strong binds can learn to notice immediately when something like that happens but it takes time..." Rae told them.


	13. Now We Train

**Hello!**

* * *

><p>The next day, Sam, Rae and Kurt went out to learn about the Gym and get supplies. We were going to challenge The Pewter City Gym in three days.<p>

_Three days._

Possibly the biggest fight of my life. With Sam's honor on my shoulders. Suddenly, I felt as weak as when I had first battled that Ratatta two weeks ago.

Decision made, I uncurled myself from the warm spot Sam had left. I hadn't felt like walking around town, unlike Gold who wanted to see if he could walk around picking any fights with any training pokemon.

So I was still moping about falling off a cliff. I'm sure _everyone's_ done it once or twice.

I immediately realized how stupid that was.

I sighed, shook myself off, and squeezed through the door.

I waited until Nurse Joy had her back turned, I didn't want to risk the chance Pokemon weren't allowed to leave without their owners, and scurried behind a potted plant near the door(humans have such strange things). I waited patiently for the door to open. Five minutes later, my patience paid off, the sliding door opened and a boy with a fainted pidgey hurried in. I took advantage of the distraction and slipped through, wondering if I would be able to get back in or not. I retraced my steps to the mountain.

If I wanted to win this for Sam, I'd have to give it all I had.

I started trotting up the mountain, only slowing to preform a more difficult move. Whenever I slipped, I pulled myself up.

By the time I reached the top, I was slightly sweating and panting so I lay down watching the town for a few minutes.

Finally, I pulled myself up again, And practiced rolls, dodges, sprints, and attacks on the slanted land. I frustratedly shook myself off every time I tripped on a rock or lost my footing on the rocks. I aimed at a thick tree, growing on the slant. I would jump to different spots near the tree, jumping on what I needed to and aiming tackles and scratches at the trunk until it looked cross-hatched every where I could reach and I couldn't feel my paws.

I looked up at the sun, it had to be after 2 PM by now, I would have to hurry back before everyone got back. I had been training for nearly five hours. I was no wonder I was so worn out. Yet as I practiced agility going downhill, I was so full of adrenaline, I could barely notice.

Finally, I reached the town. It was a lot more active than it was when I had left so I constantly had to dodge behind bushes and trees and weave between legs.

"Hey!" A grumpy man said looking down. When he saw me, his eyes widened considerably.

"Go, Nidorano! Catch the shiny!" He cried in excitement, casting his pokeball into the crowd and tossing a blue pokeball with a yellow lightning pattern at me. I barely jumped back in time and jumped behind some else's leg.

Pedestrians quickly dodged out of the way so the larger pokemon could materialize. I started at it for a split second, quivering, before taking off. Though I should have been able to out run the heavier pokemon, my days' training was started to take an obvious toll of me, even if I hadn't gone all out, it certainly took all the stamina I had to train for five hours even including breaks.

As I ran through startled people's legs and ducked corners, I realized exactly what my advantage was. I was smaller and nimble, even if my muscles were shaking and I was constantly becoming slower due to fatigue. I took as many 90 degree turns as possible, between houses, blocks, and stores.

Just as I was sure I was finished, I spotted the person I wanted to most in the entire world, Sam.

Gasping in exhaustion, I pushed myself a little harder, tucking my tail closer to my legs as Nidorino snapped at it and sprinted. I winced when I realized I had snapped a claw but it wasn't critical so it could wait 'til later.

Sam finally saw me hurtling towards him followed by a vicious pink spike ball and, after registering the strange sight, dropped the groceries and bent low with his arms out.

Rae grabbed her Pokeballs and released Azurill, Cleffa, and Igglybuff.

I jumped into Sam's arms and he scooped me up, holding me tight.

Nidorano skidded to a stop, confused.

I would have stuck out my tongue at him but I was already panting.

The three Police pokemon puffed out and Nidorino jogged away, seeing no further reason to pursue an already captured Pokemon. The three baby pokemon thought they intimidated him and I wasn't gonna ruin their fun.

We started walking back.

"Nova why'd you leave? Your coat attracts too much attention. It's dangerous. I couldn't risk losing you." Sam told me, frowning.

Since I was unable to tell him, I looked up at his innocently a wagged my tail, snuggling further into his arms as if to tell him 'I couldn't risk losing you either.'

"Do you still want to explore town?" Rae inquired, butting in.

'Ee-e!' I agreed. No matter what happened, it was still worth it for the training experience.

Rae smiled and started digging through Kurt's backpack.

"H-hey!" He protested. Rae pulled out a navy blue bandana, folded it once, then wrapped it around my neck and tied it in back. I shifted, uncomfortable with her sudden touch.

"What's that for?" Sam asked.

"It's for when Nova decided to walk around again. If she wears this, she looks more like a trainer's pokemon than a rare, wild one. She'll have an easier time getting around now."

I understood and gratefully licked Rae's hand and she grinned ear to ear.

**NEXT DAY**

Sam, after asking me, left with Kurt and Rae to train Missile, the Police pokemon, and Abra.

Me and Gold, who was already wearing his boxing gloves, headed into town. This time Nurse Joy spotted me and was unhappy about me leaving my the managed to get Chansey to tell her Sam had allowed me to do so.

It was 6 AM and Gold and I were on a mission to battle any willing pokemon who would stand a chance to us, or vice versa. After walking a few minutes, Gold stopped and pointed left.

"I'm gonna go find some foes other there. See ya back at the center later I guess. Try not to get run over, Shrimpy."

"Oh, uh okay see you." I said, a little disappointed that he wanted to go alone.

I started walking down the middle of the street, keeping distance from any early risers. It was interesting how society worked. It all seemed so new to me, but I had only been experiencing these things for a little longer than two weeks so it wasn't too surprising. I peeked behind my bandana to check to see if the three oran berries I had packed into the little pouch Kurt (who seemed to be infinitely good with anything requiring a tool) had sewn, were still in place.

After wandering around for several minutes, I found a flock of pidgey and walked over to them.

"Anyone wanna battle?"

A few flew off, spooked but two stayed, one only long enough to give me a sarcastic retort, 'as if.'

"Alright, I'll take you on," a pidgey said stretching out his winging. I shifted to my battle stance.

"Bring it on."

Pidgey hurtled at me, rapidly flapping his wings. I found my dodge had become much more neat and faster and dodged farther than necessary. I realized it must have been the running and quick turns from the day before. Upon jumping on the birds' back and delivering a tackle to the top of his skull, I realized my skull was harder than his, as it virtually had no effect on me but caused him to faint.

I hopped off him, thanked him though he was completely out if it, and dragged him to a shady tree for him to recover before continuing on.

**12 PM**

I lay down under a shady tree on a crest of a small hill right outside the city and pulled out my oran berries. I was a little bruised and scraped up from battling for inconsistently for six hours. I had battled nine pokemon so far, not a lot, considering the span of time. Most of them didn't last more than two or three minutes but one battle with a trainer and her charmander had lasted five minutes before I finally won.

I stretched out my exhausted muscles and finished off the berries.

_I wonder how Gold's doing..._ I thought, immediately imagining Gold running around punching anything with a pulse and two fists. I laughed then realized that was probably what he was doing...

I pulled myself up and prepared to keep at it.

I trudged back to the center exhaustedly and ignoring any formalities, jumped up onto the counter in a way that said, 'heal me, wench' but good natured Joy complied anyway, knowing politeness was probably the last thing on my mind after so much work.

**THE DAY OF QUESTION**

I was feeling confident. I was ready to do this.

Sam, Kurt, Rae and I approached the looming Boulder Gym. The first milestone in our quest. An official battle.

"You ready for your first Gym battle, Rusty?"

"It's yours too, Gold."

...Or maybe I wasn't ready. I looked up at Sam, sweat dropping and tried to inconspicuously head back that way we came but Sam grabbed me.

"Don't back down now, Nova. I know how hard you trained for this. "

I nodded nervously and looked up. The Gym had a purple roof. How bad could the Pewter City Gym be if it had a purple roof?

_Unless it was designed to make you put your guard down..._

Realizing anymore thinking would psych me out, I braced myself and charged in, utterly terrified.

"Hey! Nova! Wait up!" Sam called after me and the humans ran after me.

I skidded to a stop ten feet in front of a boy maybe a few years older than Sam with tan skin, small, narrowed eyes and spiky brown hair.

"Looks like I have a challenger. Where's your trainer, little eevee?" He asked before Sam came in.

"Right here. And we want to challenge you to a battle."

Brock chuckled. "Alright then. This'll be quick. I have to make dinner soon."

_Dinner?_ I wondered confusedly. He didn't seem like that kind of guy.

Brock, the Gym leader led us to an official looking field with stones and rocks jutting out.

"You can pit any or all of your pokemon against my two. You have the first move." Brock stated monotonously, tried of newbie trainers who had let their head get to big for his gym.

"Alright, sounds good," Sam said, pulling a pokeball from his belt.

"Go, Geodude!"

"Let's win this, Missile!" Sam hurled the pokeball into the air in the way I loved and the newly winged Missile appeared in a blaze of red five feet above Sam.

"You ready to show Brock what you've learned?" Sam asked. I realized I hadn't seen Missile battled since he became a Beedrill.

"Missile! Fury attack now!" Sam commanded.

Missile charged at Geodude with ridiculous speed and delivered a flurry of attacks of which only one or two hit.

"Geodude, keep distance!"

'Geo ge!'

"Keep 'em coming Missile! Fly higher! Now Focus Energy!"

Missile glowed with red aura.

'Bee bee BEE!'

"Fury attack!" Missile charged at the geodude in the incredibly fast speed. By now Kurt and Rae were cheering loudly.

Three hits connected.

"Geodude, Tackle!" Geodude slammed his rock hard body into Missile and he hit the ground with a thud and dizzy eyes.

"Missile!" Sam recalled him, "That was amazing, don't worry, we'll keep working on it until its perfect."

Sam pulled out a new Pokeball.

"Gold, finish him off."

Gold appeared on the terrain, seemingly unfazed by the important battle and cooly watched the winded geodude.

"Better say your prayers, shorty." Gold said.

* * *

><p><strong>Please review!<strong>


	14. Rock Solid

Brock looked a little nervous now. Ground was strong against rock.

Gold cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

"Gold, use Swift!" Gold opened his mouth and released a bullet spray of glowing, sharp stars. Geodude tried to escape but they followed where ever he went and finally connected.

"Rapid Spin!

"Tackle!" The two hard-heads connected in the air and both were pushed back.

Geodude took a while to get back up. Gold yawned and kept his mouth open the tiniest amount, releasing a tiny, thick purple needle. It hit the geodude square in the forehead and he fainted.

"Return, Geodude. Go, Onix!"

Gold looked a little tired but otherwise ready for action staring at the enormus rock snake pokemon as it towered over him and gave a might groan.

Gold sneered and ran at Onix.

"Gold, use sand attack!" He lowered a paw into the dirt as he ran, effectively stirring up a cloud of dust.

"Onix, watch out, he might use dig!" Onix watched the approaching ground type cautiously.

"Punch him in the face!"

"What?" Brock's eyes nearly opened as Gold jumped five feet into the air and delivered a mighty thrust between Onix's eyes. It was quiet until Gold jumped back, cradling his paw as he watched a crack form between Onix's eyes. Onix flailed in pain before getting back up.

"So your Sandshrew has a fighting type move. Unexpected." Brock muttered, moving back to his cool facade.

"Well, its not actually a move..."

"What!?"

"Okay, lets go!"

"Uh!"

"Gold, rapid spin!"

Gold curled into a ball and and rose off the ground.

"Onix! Use your tail to send him to the ground!"

"..Gold try to dodge!"

The hesitation was all that was needed to ensure Onix's strike to land. Gold skidded back several feet before climbing back onto his feet.

"Rock Tomb!"

"Avoid it!" Sam ordered, unfortunealty, Gold couldn't pull himself together in time. A pile of rocks piled on top of the punchy pokemon. I flinched as the rocks hit me and made a strangled yelp. Sam gritted his teeth and balled up his fists. He looked terrified.

"Oi! Sam, try and stay calm, keeping a cool head's the only way to win!" Rae called from behind. I took the advice as well and tried to lower my hackles. /Stay calm...have faith in Gold.../

"Onix, use Harden and prepare for that Sandshrew to come from the ground!" The onix complied and his body turned momentarily silvery. Too bad Gold couldn't dig...

Suddenly, the top rock came loose and Gold's head poked out of the rubble.

'Shrew!' He snarled at the Onix who moaned at him in reply.

"Gold! You're okay!" Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "If you're still up to battling, try a Poison Sting!" Gold fired off three or four tiny purple needles while squirming free of the rubble. Once he was free and under Sam's command, he followed up with a tackle, aiming at Onix's injured forehead.

"Onix, use Bind!"

In an instant, it all turned around. Onix wrapped his incredibly large snake body around the considerably smaller body of Gold and started to constrict. Desperate, Gold attempted a Rapid Spin but couldn't move at all.

"Gold, Defense Curl!" Gold nodded and started to glow silver before it faded away. It was a stalemate for fifteen seconds before Onix's hold got tighter and Gold cried out. Onix bellowed angrily and tightened.

"Sam, it's not wise to continue this match. Your Sandshrew doesn't have a chance to escape now. Recall him before real damage is done."

Sam's arm robotically reached back to his belt to grab Gold's pokeball. Gold redoubled his squirming before the vise tightened and he froze. That was enough for Sam.

"Gold, return! You fought your very best. Thank you." He replaced the pokeball.

"So, are you going to give up or are you going to use that unexperienced little ball of energy right there?" Brock inquired. He was talking about me. I was shaking at the thought of going head to rock head against a pokemon strong enough to best Gold but I had to do it. For Gold, Sam and Missile.

"Nova?" Sam turned towards me. I rubbed my head against his knee before walking out to the battlefield. I instantly felt the pressure of what was happening. I felt like doing anything but this- anything-

"Nova, use Tackle!" It was gone. All the tension and all the worry. I knew what I was doing now. And I was doing it for him.

I charged at the rock pokemon knowing that the best place to hit it would be right between the eyes, the spot that had already been damaged by Gold a few minutes ago.

"You too, Onix, Tackle!" Five feet from his head, Onix started his own tackle. Our bodies collided and several seconds later I found myself on the dusty ground and dizzy.

"Nova! Are you okay?"

'vee!' I nodded, taking my stance again.

"Use Tackle again!" The same move. I cursed myself for knowing so few attacks.

"Bind!" My eyes widened as I saw my body being surrounded by a rocky wall on all sides. Then it coiled and tightened. Hard to breathe. It was coiling tighter every time I exhaled. I looked at his face and almost gasped. He was terrifying.

"Nova! How are you doing!"

'Vee-e!' I assured him breathlessly waiting for his command. Focus, Sam, focus. I couldn't possibly last much longer like this. To prevent Onix's coil getting any tighter, I held my breath.

...

"Nova! Use growl then jump out if you can!" I pulled back my lips and bore my tiny, sharp teeth, and released a high pitched yet unnerving sound. To my surprise, Onix's hold loosened slightly and taking my opportunity, I slithered out of its hold and jumped onto a nearby rock.

'Eevee!'

"Great job, Nova! Now use Tail Whip!" I cocked my head to the side and swished my tail from side to side disarmingly. Onix looked at me, confused by the sudden change in attitude. /Just you wait, big guy, just you wait.../

"Onix, Rock Tomb!"

"Use Tackle!"

I raced at Onix just as he picked several rocks larger than myself and started launching them at me. Peering up, I dodged to the side, nearly being knocked over by the impact of the rock landing next to me. A shadow passed overhead. The next rock. I skidded to a stop, missing it by inches. Jumping onto it and launching off, I kept my momentum. Nearly there. It was three rocks, right? So where was the third? I looked up. Slow motion as it connected with mulitplying pressure onto my head. More as my neck lowered. Hitting the ground and blackness, the lights eclipsed by boulder. A tiny dribble of warm down my forehead closing the uncomfortable distance between my head and stone followed by my collapsing limbs though they weren't burdened by twenty pounds of rock.

"...D...y...wa...se!" My ears still seemed to be working. Even if my brain was slow on the uptake. "I...can't go...on. You w-" Sam's desperate voice. Gold fighting his best for Sam. Getting up time and time again. Missile saving my life. The police pokemon. Would I really just lay here..? No.

My paws gripped the earth and my muscles stiffened. My back rose and I started rocking my head back and forth to dislodge the stone. Finally it rolled off, releasing pressure on my head but letting air get to my sensetive wound. I looked back at my friends. Gold was out of his pokeball, scraped up and still unable to stand. His paws were bunched up into fists. Rae and her crew let out a shout of encouragement. Kurt and Abra pumped their fists. I looked at Sam. His face was pale but he looked at me, smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

"Nova. We'll win this." He smiled. "Use tackle!" I charged, hit a wall, charged again and was smashed to the floor. I got up slower this time. Scrunching my eyes, I mentally followed a path that would be my only chance for victory. My last chance too.

"Nova, Sand-Attack!" I nearly flinched. He didn't know what I was planning or how far I was on my last limb. I didn't move. I didn't obey. /I'm sorry Sam. This is for you./ Onix approached.

"Nova! Use Sand-Attack!" Closer.

"Nova!" Now. I charged directly at Onix only make a sharp ninety degree turn and jumped onto his tail. Onix's eyes widened in surprise. I started jumping from rock to rock until I was nearly half way up. /Thank goodness for my jumping and quick turn training I had the past few days./

Onix turned and tried tackling me off him, only to miss and hit a rock with his head. He started to vibrate to but I held on as tight as I could. Nearly at his head.

"Onix, Bind!" This was getting dangerous now. I sped up. My secret weapon. Quick Attack. Nearly blurred, I connected with Onix's cracked head and he crumbled to the ground completely defeated. I jumped off and caught myself on the ground. Sam and the others ran up to me.

"Onix is unable to battle, the winner is Challenger Sam from Pallet and his Eevee!"

"Nova, I'm so proud of you!"

Finally, my Shadow ball had finally showed its merit, I thought, sitting heavily before Sam scooped me into his arms and nuzzled my face.

'Vee-e!' I chirped, licking his face as Sam was handed his boulder badge.

"Wow Nova! A Boulder Badge!" He twirled us around and snapped a picture then held Gold in his arms, barely containing jumps of joy. Gold tried to look irritated but I was reasonably certain he wasn't.

Brock walked up to Sam to shake his hand and then bent down to pet me. I shied away and Brock frowned in thought.

"The Center is kind of far away and there's a bit of a storm brewing. How would you like it if I treated your Pokemon and whipped up a meal for all of us?"

Brock used a potion for the gash on my head and one for my other cuts and then taped gauze to my forehead. The instant he was done, I leapt into Sam's lap at the table.

"Nova, I'm so glad you are feeling better!" You look as good as new!" Sam grinned but it didn't reach his eyes. Something was bothering him but I could tell he wasn't ready to talk yet.

"So what would you guys like me to cook for dinner?"

"Dumplings!" Kurt jumped onto his feet, causing Abra to teleport into a corner.

Brock laughed jovially and skidded to a kneeling position in front of Rae.

"My fair-skinned lady, would that be to your liking?"

"Ah...sure."

"Do you like me-?"

Brock got smacked in the back on his head by a girl with a spiky ponytail about nine.

"Give a rest, Brock!"

Kurt got up. "I'll help you cook."

"Is it just me or did Brock's personality completely change from the Gym battle to now. Talk about separation of work and personal life." Rae remarked.

"P-puppy!" A little girl with spiky brown pigtails wailed, petting me with heavy, uncontrolled hands. I flinched. /It's fine, she isn't trying to hurt me. I'm just cute and fluffy./

She grabbed my tail and started giggling hysterically.

Oh goodness.

"Ee!" I wrenched my tail away from her and jumped onto a chair to the table and onto the counter where Kurt was mixing the dough.

"Nova! Hey watch out!" Kurt said, trying to pick me up. I jumped onto his arms and off his head and into Sam's arms, who had gotten up and come over. I looked over at Brock who had a pensive look to him.

10 PM

I tried cuddling closer to Sam's body and instantly woke when my paws didn't make contact. I sat up and strained my ears. I heard voices downstairs so I lightly jumped off the bed and nosed through the crack in the door I carefully crept down the creaky steps. Luckily, my light weight wasn't enough to register. "...Well, she seems incredibly sensitive to human touch. It's just...weird. You'd think she'd get a lot of attention because of her beautiful coat alone. You said you got her from an official League breeder?"

Sam furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah, Professor Oak."

"Really? The Pokemon that come from him are usually always top of the line and friendly even to strangers."

"Yeah. Professor Oak didn't really seem like he wanted to give her to me."

They paused for a moment and dissolved into a softer subject so I returned to the room, tail dragging.

"Goodbye! Thanks for the Boulder Badge!" Sam called back.

"Don't thank me! You earned it!" Brock shouted after them. The trio walked away, leaving Brock standing alone in the front of the old gym.

/I have a feeling next time I see those trainers, they will all have changed each other for the better..."

I sniffed the air.

"Hey, Gold. Do you think we're close to the next city already?" I wondered.

"Don't be ridiculous. We left yesterday and those guys," he gestured to Rae, Kurt, and Sam, "were saying it could take three days."

I frowned. "Then why are there so many people gathered?"

"Huh?"

"I smell..." I slowed a nosed to ground. The humans stopped walking in curiosity. "Definitely more than the Gym leader's house had."

""""

"You want to go over here, Nova?"

""""

I started following the scent and within one minute we broke out of the forest and saw a craggy landscape full of people resembling Professor in white lab coats and computers. They were looking into a deep cave as if they wanted to go in.

"Hey, what's going on here, you guys?" Kurt greeted so loudly, the rest of us winced and a few of the closest researchers jumped.

"Are you kids trainers?" One asked, wide eyed.

"Yep," Sam replied, subconsciously touching the spot his new badge was.

"Would you kids like to earn a little money?"

As if to answer, their stomachs growled.

The researcher laughed. "I'll give you a total of 900 Poke if you guys successful map the tunnels of Mount Moon back there. We've tried but we aren't Pokemon trainers and always lose our way or get chased by Graveler! Other Pokemon trainers haven't been successful but he don't want to give up! The secrets of this cave will be shown to the world!"

"We'll do it!" Sam said, accepting the pen and large map paper they were given while Rae and Kurt released their Pokemon. Missile flew down and timidly shuffled his stingers on the grass.


	15. Crushing Defeats

**Sorry for the long delay! The good news-I'm pretty far ahead on the story and its getting pretty intense!**

* * *

><p>"Some cave..." Sam said, letting a pick axe he had been given hit a rock with a clang and turning switching the headlight on the hard helmet he had been given on.<p>

I yelped and scurried behind Sam as I noticed the rock I had been skirting around was a Geodude.

Sam laughed. "I guess we should all just make sure we stick together and follow the instructions the man told us. It's the second half of the cave thats the real problem, right?"

Kurt nodded, dragging a petrified Abra behind him. "They said they got some seriously crazy unstable energy readings from the eastern part of the cave a during this month every year."

The cave forked into two directions in front of us. I sniffed the air but all I could smell was rocky underground. I turned to Sam, indicating I had no idea which way to go.

"This way's east." Kurt said moving to the right tunnel without hesitation. We all followed.

"What do you guys think is in here?" Rae inquired casually.

"Hmm. Maybe a super powerful pokemon who has been asleep for hundreds of years!" Kurt said excitedly.

"Doesn't explain why it only emits energy once a month," Sam said dissmissingly.

Kurt karate chopped his head. "You're just trying to keep it too yourself!"

"W-what? Don't be ridiculous!" Sam said, massaging the top of his head.

"Hey, did you hear a voice?" It took me a second to register that it didn't come from any of us. We all froze.

"Who could that be?" Sam whispered, "No one else is supposed to be in here."

"They don't sound like they really care about that." Kurt remarked quietly, crouching down to prevent detection, I stood with my side to the wall trying to identify their position by the sound, unfortunately the cave's reverberation confused my ears. Then I remembered I couldn't pinpoint sounds in the first place. _That's just a__wesome._

"Cleffa. See what they're doing and if they have pokemon with them. Be careful." Rae said, crouching down to Cleffa.

"Cle-fa!" Nodded the pink star pokemon as she sneakily made her way around the corner. We all inched closer, breathing quietly.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Hey! The scanner's finally picking one up. It's coming from here." They started in our direction.

"It's gotta one of those Clefairy we've been searching for! There it is!"

Cleffa was in trouble. We jumped to our feet and ran into view of the intruders. They saw us and sneered.

"If you're after this one, too bad. It's ours. Scram." One of the men said.

"Before we kick your cans outta here," The second finished.

"Stay away from my Cleffa! Azurill, use water gun, Igglybuff, helping hand!" Both small Pokemon ran foreward to where Gold and I were baring our teeth.

Cleffa, more confident with back up, took a step foreward, flicking her ears while looking at Rae.

"Alright Cleffa, get ready!" Rae said.

The grunts released Zubat, Paras, and Ekans.

"Cleffa, Pound."

"Rapid spin!"

"Quick attack!"

The paras approached the trainers and Sam, Kurt and Rae jumped to the sides of the the cave tunnel to avoid a poison powder. Sam on one side and the others on the other. Igglybuff jumped up to run to the other side of the cave to get to Rae but Sam grabbed her to prevent her from getting in the powder.

I went straight for Geodude, delivering a sound hit before jumping back next to Gold and Cleffa.

The two offending pokemon were shaken and the paras was steadily being weakened by Abra and Azurill.

"That's it, Geodude, use magnitude!"

"What?" Gold exclaimed in shock. I whipped my head around to look at him.

"You can't be serious! You moron! You can't use magnitude in a cave! It'll collapse!" Kurt yelled.

A rumble came from above.

"Everybody! Get to a wall!" Sam called, grabbed Azurill, who was inches away from him. "Gold! Defense Curl!" Nova, be-" He was cut off as I ran towards him and a huge rock crashed between us sending up dust and small chunks of rock.

"Stay there Nova, you'll be hit!" Sam yelled making wide shooing motions. I kept running at Sam. I didn't want to be separated from him. No way. I continued towards him, eyes squinted in my attempt to see past the floating debris. I wasn't going to lose him.

At least not until I felt something tackle my side.

* * *

><p>I was knocked to the side of the wall. In a second, the spot I had been earlier I was a sandstone brick armor curling in defense. <em>Oh god no. <em>Panic pounded loud in my ears as I tried to open my mouth for a warning. 'Gold!'

The rocks hit him with a terrifying impact. 'Gold! Can you hear me?' I looked around for help but the place where Sam had been moments earlier was completely blocked off, there was no way out of the tunnel and no way to get to Sam, Rae, Kurt or my other friends.

_Alone._

_Alone._

_Alone... _

_I couldn't get to any of my friends. Maybe it would have been better if I had never even left Oak's..._

This pain was something I was totally unaccustomed to and I found it hurt more than any other sensation I had felt before. Worse than fighting that gang of Meowth and worse than the boulders that had struck me at the Gym.

_At least then I knew I was battling with my friends all cheering me on._..

A chocking breathe hitched in my throat as I collasped to the dusty floor with no resistance.

A rumble woke me up from my desperate reverie. My watery gaze shifted back towards the rocks where Gold had fallen. Another rumble. I jumped up and ran towards the rock pile. A few seconds later, a disgruntled Gold squeezed his way out, spitting dirt out off to the side. Relived, I hastily rubbed the tears from my face with my dirty paw.

'Gold! You're okay!'

Gold looked at me funny for a second before dusting himself off. "Of course I am. What do you think, that I'd push you out of the way if I weren't sure I could handle it? I'm a fighting type. Rocks are nothing.' Gold grouched, climbing off the pile and looking around.

Immensely relived, I learned that I should have never lost faith so quickly in my friends and sucessfully refrained myself from saying anything about his type.

_Sam!_

I turned around and ran over to the larger rockfall, searching for a purchase for my claws and pulled. The rocks didn't budge.

'Sam? Are you okay Sam?'

A few long seconds later, there was a response. "Nova? Is that you?"

I responded by wagging my tail and yipping, too excited for words he wouldn't understand.

* * *

><p><strong>SAM<strong>

The twelve year old boy moved from the spot he had been shoved in during the rockfall. Only tiny shrills of crying alerted him to where Igglybuff was.

"Shh... it's okay, don't cry," he cooed softly, bouncing the little pokemon in his arms. Feeling his way towards the direction the tiny amount of light was shining, he explored his surroundings. He was trapped in a small part of the cave barely five square feet.

When he put his hand on the stone and pushed, it didn't so much as shift. Kneading his temple in frustration, he realized his face was covered in grime, his frusterated sigh turned into a cough as he slid against the rock wall with his companion's pokemon in his arms. Moments later, he heard something faint. Right before he responded, he bit his lip and covering Igglybuff's mouth. It could be those 'Grunts' that had been in the cave. It might be better that they think he's out of the way. He assumed that was what Kurt and Rae where doing as well, as they were in a much more stable part of the cave when the rocks had fallen.

Another minute of silence, then he heard faint scrabbling against the wall he was leaning against. Alert, he turned around and hesitantly pressed his ear against the cool stone.

'Vee-ee? Eevee Vee-ee?'

Sam could've danced in relief. Although it was terribly muffled, it had to be his beloved Eevee.

"Nova? Is that you?" Sam called back. In his arms Igglybuff perked up.

A series of yips affirmed his question.

Sam grinned. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I've got Missile with me. Is Gold okay?"

'Ve eevee!'

Sam decided that by her tone, Nova was saying yes and sagged in relief.

_Everything is going to be fine._

* * *

><p><strong>NOVA<strong>

Nova's delighted grin was interrupted by Sam's cough.

'Sam? What's wrong?' Nova asked, grappling the rocks.

"Don't worry, it's just really dusty in here." Sam told her before raising his voice and calling towards a different direction. "Hey Rae! Kurt! Are you guys alright?"

Familiar voices came from the other side of the cave-in. "Yeah, we're all good here! Rae, Abra and Azurill are with me. Do you have Igglybuff and Cleffa?

"Just Igglybuff, I think Cleffa is with Nova and Gold. They escaped the rocks."

"That's good because well-we're pretty trapped," Groaned Kurt.

"Can't you use Teleport?" Sam asked.

"No. Abra's been hit by that Paras's Stun spore." Kurt replied.

Sam's voice turned to us. "Well, it looks like it's up to you three unless we can figure out how to wear down this wall."

I nodded in confirmation though they couldn't see me before backing up and charging up a shadow ball at the rocks, releasing at close range in hope that it would make it stronger.

'Rusty, the caves' unstable you can't just-' Gold started. The sphere I had been forming in my mouth shot ou rock and smoke enveloped it.

'Yes! I did it!' I cheered.

'Don't be too sure,' Gold said, waving the smoke aside. THe rock had barely splintered and the cracks made in it were razor thin. Fighting the rising feeling of hopelessness, I shook the dust out of my fur. 'I guess I'll just try again!' Gold shoved me before I could charge my second Shadow ball.

'What's the point?' Gold reasoned, 'It'll take a hundred more of these to get through to them. We've got to figure something else out.'

Surprised by his logic, I stared back at the rocks, feeling defeated. '...You're right.'


	16. Clefairy's Moon

**Another chapter. :DDDDDDDDDDD**

**Side note: MY THEORIES OF POKEMON AGE (DON'T WORRY NO ONE'S GETTING OLD OR DYING BUT I DO MENTION NOVA'S AGE)**

**At 4 months, a wild Pokemon is 'mature' meaning it can fight and fend for itself and is nearly its full evolutionary size. Almost no pokemon is evolves this early (except some ****caterpie)**

**At 6 months, a domestic Pokemon is 'mature' and can battle. Before this, almost none have anything more serious than a play battle and grow to level 5 through experiencing the world, play fighting and simply walking around. Raised Pokemon are automatically stronger than a wild one of similar stature because they had more time to grow and a better environment to grow up in.**

**LIFE SPANS:**

**Assuming the average human in the world of Pokemon lives 85 years, I believe the average raised Pokemon lives about 75-80, long enough to live out its life with it's trainer (because trainers get their Pokemon at age 10). 65% of Pokemon do not live two years past when their trainer dies.**

**A weak or common wild Pokemon probably only lives 30-35 years (like a zigzagoon or wurmple) while rarer wild Pokemon live roughly 35-45 years.**

**Evolving and training can expand life spans so if a Pokemon is very strong and fully evolved, even in the wild, they could probably live a good 60 years.**

**A sentient owned Pokemon (untrained) probably could live 60 years as well but if it is battled with its lifespan could increase by 20 years.**

**EXEMPTIONS****:**

**Most likely some types of Pokemon's natural lifespan are longer than others. These are how my story is going to assume they work.**

**DRAGON: 100-120 years provided it is strong or rare**

**PSYCHIC: (Discluding P****okemon such as Drowzee) 130 years**

**GHOST: 150-200 years**

**(Obviously doesn't apply to legendaries)**

**AGING:**

**Pokemon don't break hips falling down the stairs as they age, nor do they get wrinkly skin and start going bald. This is what happens assuming the Pokemon's lifespan is 80 years.**

**YEAR 75: Still as strong, no sign of aging except slightly duller coat. Every year, speed stat falls 3-10 points.**

**YEAR 79: Slightly gray around muzzle and dull coat but still has energy and can preform all attacks, now slower but still can battle. As physical attacks are hindered, most trainers use older Pokemon's Special attacks only.**

**YEAR 80: Pokemon passes away with a final goodbye (Old Pokemon can-with some extent-have control over when they die, they know it's coming and have a week to die peacefully and without any pain before their body fails them. Pokemon's spirits always stay with the ones they love.**

**.**

**On that somber note, let the chapter begin! Let me stress that if you refuse to believe in one of these ideas, it will not really impact the story, its just here to further explain the Pokemon world (from this stories' viewpoint)**

* * *

><p>Nova and Gold continued their silent vigil over the fallen rocks for several minutes before Gold cut in.<p>

'...Weren't we supposed to be taking care of that crazy little lard-star?' Gold asked quietly.

'She's not a lard-_oh in the name of Mew-!_' Nova hopped to her paws, wildly searching while Gold simply rolled his eyes and crossed his tiny arms.

'And where did those 'Grunts' go?' Nova asked, worried. Gold's eyes widened a little bit before his facade slipped over and he was calm again as he watched her search around the rocks.

'Oh come on, Rusty, where could she have gone but further in?'

Nova stopped searching. She couldn't argue with that logic.

'Alright then, let's go exploring,' Nova said trying to sound brave.

'Finally,' Gold huffed.

Nova turned to the rockfall. 'I promise, I'll be back, don't worry.'

With that, Nova turned around and followed Gold further into the cave. Within minutes, they reached a fork in the road.

'Just great,' Gold groaned, "exactly what we don't need."

"Hold on," Nova said, lowering her nose to the ground and sniffing both paths. Last time she had done this, all she could smell was dust and cavern but now something stronger was emitting from one of the tunnels.

"Well, Sherlock?" Gold asked impatiently.

"Who?"

"Nevermind, which way?" Gold snorted.

"Oh, uh...this way, I think."

"You think?"

"It smells like...well kind of like the night and dew. Just like Cleffa does."

"Well, we're in a _cave_ it's always dark and damp!" Gold exclaimed, looking like he was on the verge of punching his own lights out. Nova noticed he had been more touchy that normal so she chalked it up to being the stress caused by him being underground.

"Let's keep going," Nova said, pushing him foreward into the narrow tunnel with her head.

"Sure, fine, let's just keep going..." Gold muttered shoving Nova off and cautiously walking forward on his own.

Nova frowned slightly, "Is something-"

Nova stopped suddenly as she caught a whiff of an even stronger scent. "There it is again, that smell. It's really strong now. Let's go!"

Nova and Gold took off.

"It's really close now! We're almost there!" Nova panted as they neared a bright tunnel.

"Whoa!" Nova squeaked, skidding to a stop next to GOld who had dug both his front and back legs into the ground in order to prevent tumbling off the sloped ledge fifteen feet above the ground. They were now in a circular room, domed with the very top open, showing a view of the sunset sky. Underneath them were dozens of older looking Cleffa all chanting to a large purple stone that reached almost to their ledge, residing in the middle of the cavern.

"We haven't been noticed," Gold breathed.

"But...what are they doing?" Nova inquired, peaking over the edge at them.

"They're making something," Gold noticed as they brought in pieces of still-buzzing machinery and assembled it to a larger hunk of metal.

"What are they saying?" Nova persisted, moving even closer to the edge.

Gold gave her an annoyed look. "Why don't ya find out?"

"Wha-?" Nova protested as Gold shoved the discolored Eevee off the ledge where she tumbled to the bottom in a russet heap.

"Intruder! Intruder" The star Pokemon scrambled away as they shrieked in terror.

_So I'm the distraction, huh Gold? _Nova thought to herself, _Fine then, I'll be the best distraction he's ever seen, dang it._

* * *

><p>Nova decided she needed to manipulate them in order for Gold's (or at least what she thought Gold's plan was. He might have simply wanted to shove her off a giant ledge) plan.<p>

"H-hello there you guys. I'm Nova the Eevee, nice to meet all of you." Nova tried innocently. The Pokemon all stared bewilderedly at each other until a slightly larger, darker Cleffa look alike parted the crowd.

Now that Nova really took a look, she could see several frightening differences between Cleffa and these Pokemon. First of all, they were a lot more spiky, second, they looked a lot meaner now that they had gotten over Nova's sudden appearance, and third, they were all more than twice her size.

Cleffa (along with Azurill and Igglybuff) herself was only about four inches short of Nova's height, as they were only about four or five months old, still young enough to not be involved in proper battles, while Nova was six and a half months old, and a full Eevee height of one foot, zero inches.

Nova cowered under the shadow of the towering Pokemon as she spoke with a surprisingly low voice considering her appearance. "We are the Clefairy and this is the Moon Cave, the cave of the Moonstone. Why have you come?" The Clefairy looked angry and hostile so Nova decided the less they knew, the better for them at the time.

"I'm sorry. Really sorry. Me and my friends lost our way in here," Nova said, avoiding glancing at Gold lest she give away his location, actually she just stared at the ground, too nervous to look the Clefairy in the eyes. Any provocation and the tense situation could easily become a battle. Not something she was inclined to do.

Clefairy frowned. "Are they humans?"

"Huh?" Nova risked a glance up at the Clefairy's steaming eyes.

"The ones you call your friends," She clarified impatiently. Nova mentally backpedalled. She only had one shot at this or else her plan wouldn't work. She was painfully aware of Gold watching the situation unfold, if a little angry that he wasn't stepping in to help.

"No! No, I got trapped in here with my Pokemon friends," that much was true; she was separated from the humans, "The scientists outside had us cornered so we fled into this cave." Now that part was a blatant lie, but she ignored her conscience.

The Clefairy stepped back a little bit, visibly more relaxed. "Scientists, they are horrible."

Nova grinned humorlessly at the Clefairy, hackles lowering. "Yeah, I guess they are."

Clefairy giggled before introducing herself. "I am Luna, this is my tribe. I have decided to free your non-human companions. Afterwards, travel far from here. Your lives depend on it."

Now Nova was confused. As far as she knew, this was neither a human nor Pokemon saying she was familiar with. "What? Why?"

Luna gestured to the machinery. "Our spaceship lands here every year and we must power it up for a month using the natural energy of the Moonstone. But this time, we can't seem to get it started. When we tried to leave, dozens of humans were right outside. Several of us tried to sneak past during night while they lay beneath their colored tarps, but they noticed every time and tried to catch us. We can't leave so we rely solely on what is in this cave. Then all types of humans come in either searching for us or coming dangerously close to our cavern.

"So we wipe their memories, turn them around, and send them back out the entrance. We did not wish harm on them. But now, even that cannot stop these humans. This is why we must use this machine to blow this cave and everything around it to dust!"

"...eh?"

* * *

><p>"You're planning on blowing this place up?!" Nova repeated loudly, not quite believing it. She risked a look at Gold, who looked equally floored. Nova took this to mean this was not a behavior typical of wild Pokemon. Briefly, Nova tinkered with the thought of Gold being that bloodthirsty. She shivered and turned back to Luna, gathering her wits.<p>

"B-but won't you all die?"

Luna shook her head. "Clefairy can enter Moonstone. It can be tangible or intangible according to our will. See?" LUna touched her chest and a glowing purple stone emerged, landing in her paw. She lowered it slightly so I could see it better. "This ability is unique to us. We carry it intangibly within us awaiting the moment we are ready to evolve. This is because the Moonstone shards are very rare. We will use this in the reverse way and stay protected inside the Moonstone until the explosion subsides. The force will not so much as chip it, only a Clefable can break off pieces of a Moonstone." She giggled, gently rubbing her stone.

"But you'll kill all the people outside! They might be making bad choices and doing bad things but they are still living! ANd what about all the plants and Pokemon outside?" Nova tried desperately.

Luna frowned as if she was reminded of something vaguely unpleasant. "We designed it to have the shortest radius possible. It will only destroy anything with a proximity of one hundred yards."

Nova wanted to cry in frustration. "That's dozens of lives! You can't-" She broke off her wail as she had quick eye contact with Gold who was furiously pantomiming that it was important to stay on their good side and make them leave the cavern. Nova guessed he wanted to see if he could dismantle the machine.

Nova bit her lip and refocused. Finding Cleffa and even trying to calm the Clefairy would fave to wait until after something was taken care of. "I'm sorry. I was out of line. Can you help me free my friends?"

Nova's brain was running faster than her feet could ever carry her as she formulated a plan. Finally, they reached the rock pile. Thankfully, the scent of the 'grunts' was faded enough to be indistinguishable to the Clefairy. Nova could only smell it because she knew it was there. She hoped the same theory panned out concerning her human travel companions.

* * *

><p>"They're here," I indicated, noting to be careful. The Clefairy started using their telekinesis to lift rocks. <em>I want to be able to do that, <em>I reflected stupidly.

Just when the gap was large enough for a human to squeeze through, I yelled for them to stop.

"What is it?" Luna asked, confused and a little exasperated.

"They're very shy...hold on, I'll go get them." I told reassured them, half-way entering the rock pile. I couldn't see Sam but they seemed to have broken down the barrier to each other. I imagined that Sam was on the otherside, just barely obscured by shadow. It made what I was about to do even harder to endure. When I heard movement coming from the corner, I growled loudly enough for my message to be relayed. 'Do not move.' I swallowed.

"Missile, Igglybuff, Amarill," I almost called for Abra but remembered that he was still recovering from paralysis and I couldn't bear leaving my humans without a Pokemon to defend them. "Come with me."

The Pokemon who I had called exchanged strange looks but must have recognized the strain in my voice because they walked out of the tunnel.

Rae who had come into my vision, clearly undeterred by my warning started coming over to me.  
>"Oh thank goodness it's-" Her exclamation was cut off as I stepped back into the larger cavern and aimed a Shadow ball at a nearly dislodged rock above the entrance. It was a horrible, gut-wrenching feeling to walk away like that, especially without even seeing Sam, but I knew if I did see him, I wouldn't be able to leave him. I absolutely had to succed in talking down these trigger-happy Clefairy out of blowing the place sky-high or I could lose everything.<p>

And that was something that I could never let happen.

I accomplished three things in having the Clefairy clear the cave-in. First, I could now guess that they are Psychic types, an unforeseen plus, second, almost all of our Team's Pokemon were together, we needed strength in numbers, and third, I was confident that I had no chance in clearing those rocks myself. Hopefully, as soon as we left, Sam, Rae and Kurt would push the rock out of the way and think of a plan with a little more substance than mine. The rock was only meant to slow them down and ensure that they didn't come face to face with the Clefairy. I shuddered at the thought.

I wasn't sure I could battle them without thinking about Cleffa. I figured many of my Team's Pokemon felt the same.

I turned back towards them and breathed "Don't say a word about our trainers." They understood and we started to follow the Clefairy back to the large cavern they were originally assembled in. About ten yards away from the cavern entrance, I realized that I couldn't have provided sufficent time to Gold. Panicked, I went with the first thing I thought of.

"Ah! My paw!" I wailed, lifting one of my forepaws up with delicacy and theatrically limped a few steps before sitting down. The nearest Clefairy turned around and stared at me for a few seconds before reporting. "Lying!" It sang to Luna, whose eyes narrowed as she approached me. Sighing I dropped the act and put my paw down. My friends tensed.

Luna scrutinized me for a few moments. "You have been acting very nervous this whole time. And you are clearly opposed to what we are forced to do, yet you went along with us even after your friends were released from the rockpile, you follow us back instead of attempting to escape past the humans when you might be able to, not being Clefairy. And a group of such diverse Pokemon traveling together." Luna laughed sourly. "Yes, I have known who you are ever since we released your friends. But now-now I think your trainers are with you in this cave. Perhaps still in the rocks? Closing them back in to hide them from us? Is that what a Pokemon so desperate to protect their humans do?"

I lowered myself to the ground. Missile bumped his stingers together nervously, ready to help if needed.

Luna continued. "So the question then would be...why follow us back...unless-" The brilliant star Pokemon's eyes widened as she suddenly understood.

"Moon Cavern!" She gasped, "Back to the Moon Cavern!"


	17. Explosive Personalities

**I just want to thank everyone for coming this far into the story and watching Nova and her friends become stronger and better throughout their endeavors!**

**By the way, until yesterday when I was writing the last two chapters, I had no idea that Clefairy is TWICE the size of Eevee. They look so small next to their trainers! Anyway, I keep forgetting but I checked over it to make sure I don't conflict with the Pokedex on that.**

**Here ya go!**

* * *

><p>Nova watched nervously as the Clefairy colony hastily retreated back to their cavern.<p>

"Let's go!" The vulpix-roan eevee told Missile, Igglybuff, and Azurill and with out further ado, they gave chase to the flustered pink star Pokemon.

A chorus of shrieks alerted Nova and her group to the fact that they had found Gold. As the Pokemon burst into the cavern, Gold jumped back over towards them, turning the Clefairy's attention on the intruding Pokemon as a whole. Nova knew this was a very bad situation for them to be in, they were five members short and facing off against more than two dozen angered Clefairy.

Nova stepped up to Gold, ear twitching at the high-pitched voices registering the impending battle. "Did you dismantle it?" She hissed softly.

Gold snorted frustratedly. "Could barely get a dent in it."

Nova took a second to register what he had just said and gave him a hard stare. "You could've just started pulling wires, not punching it." She pointed out.

"Do I _look _like a mechanic?" Gold grumbled, gesturing to himself and Nova mentally conceded.

A loud throat clearing interrupted their conversation before Nova could explain to Gold what she knew and both of them looked up to see Luna standing a few feet in front of them.

"If you intend to prevent us from reaching liberty-then we are forced to do battle. Let me point out that the odds are stacked against you my small adversaries, we outnumber you significantly." Luna warned.

Nova tried to explain futility, "No-we just don't want this to have fatalities-"

"We are weary of this now. Leave this moment or prepare for combat." Luna hissed, obviously done with any attempts at ending this civilly.

Holding back the ever-present shiver through her spine, Nova attempted to speak up again, desperate to talk down the Clefairy. She knew that Luna was a rational Pokemon by the way she showed regret and had tried being cordial. This only frusterated her further though. How could a sane Pokemon willingly blow up dozens of lives, even as a means of escape? "I'm sorry. We can't leave..."

Nova suddenly realized that what she had just said wasn't her decision to make and glanced towards Gold to see what he thought of her words. Gold was staring straight ahead at the Clefairy, rotating his shoulder in anticipation of the battle. He always said he fought best with his back against the wall. _Our backs are definitely against the wall right now,_ Nova reflected. She glanced at Missile and other others. They were ready too. Nova breathed an audible sigh of relief. She had learned not to underestimate the Police Pokemon a long time ago and she knew, without a doubt that she was surrounded by great Pokemon. _Make the call, make the call..._

"...then let us fight." Luna cried, charging at them. They were painfully outnumbered-more than three Clefairy for each member of the team but if Gold knew it was a lost cause, he didn't let on; charging into the massed a whacking them with powerful punches and blocks.

Nova found herself facing off with a smaller, probably newly evolved Clefairy. She lifted up her paw, preparing to strike with Pound. Nova swallowed the thoughts connecting parallels between Cleffa and her opponent as she swung her body away, narrowly avoiding the attack. Nova had to admire how such a disalarming Pokemon seemed so strong however. Deciding to go on the offensive, Nova snapped her jaws at the Clefairy but she rolled out of the way. Closing the distance again, Nova charged after it but she turned around and delivered scorching slaps to the the side of Nova's face until her muzzle burned and tears stung her eyes.

The discolored Eevee, now angrier, approached again, this time using an agile quick attack, effectively knocking her back a couple of feet. Only slightly winded, the Clefairy sat slightly stunned that it had been pushed back. Now posing no threat, Nova looked around, searching for a new opponent and scouring the battlefield.

It seemed that several other smaller Clefairy were also creeping away from the fray and pressing themselves against the walls, unready and unexperienced in battle. Nova knew it wouldn't be easy if she had still be challenged so much by such a young Pokemon.

Nova saw Missile who was now parrying one Clefairy's Doubleslap attack away with his stingers. Even as some of Clefairy's attacks made it through Missile amateur defenses, he seemed to block faster and stronger until his attacks started landing, not strong or powerful but deathly fast. Nova realized that he was using the move Fury attack and the unknowing Clefairy was playing right into it. Missile had come a long way since he was a Caterpie.

Satisfied with Missile, Nova looked for Azurill and Igglybuff. Azurill was unleashing a small steam of bubbles on an offending Clefairy, assisted by Igglybuff who was pummeling it with tiny Pounds. The Clefairy seemed to have fallen victim to the duos Charm attack and was temporarily incapacitated. They had the upper hand.

When another Clefairy tried to assist however, Nova jumped in front of it, blocking its way, wishing desperately for Sam to tell her what she should do.

* * *

><p>Facing off with the large Clefairy was probably not what she had imagined herself doing even as they entered the cave. Their plan was to map out some tunnels, come back out and have earned enough money for lunch and a few supplies.<p>

Nova guessed that that was just how life is. Unexpected.

Now for a battle strategy. Gold probably didn't have one but was unhindered by everything and was facing off with three at the same time: something Nova knew from experience she was incapable of.

_Alright. Let's see. Clefairy are Psychic right? I know I have one move that will do just the trick! _Nova thought to herself, calling a tumbling, fuming energy from her chest into her throat where she experimented carefully with its potency.

Charging a Shadow ball was not something she would consider easy. Though difficult for her to describe, she likened it to a human recipe. Her nerves, taste buds and even scent receptors all gave her input. Though she didn't know what to do with the sensory information on a conscious level, she instinctually corrected and tweaked the formula of the growing sphere. Through tensing her throat and willing tiny degrees of the energy to shift, even air was sucked into the spinning form of what she knew to expect of the shadowy purple form. Unfortunalty, Nova had not yet perfected it though she had considered herself relatively good with trying to practice the ability.

Finally, as it fully charged and the Clefairy approached, arms oddly in front of it, Nova released the Shadow ball. While it spun through the air, Nova smirked at its non-translucency. Then, like some of Nova's worst moments, she watched her beautiful Shadow ball, dutifully revolving around an energy-laden axis, spin straight through Clefairy.

Nova barely had time to register her horrible failure before a loud noise echoed around to cavern and resounded in her ears.

CLAP!

Startled she stared at her foe Clefairy whose paws were still pressed together. Nova looked around, but in the chaos, no one seemed to notice or care why this Clefairy had clapped. Briefly, Nova debated whether the Clefairy was being snarky with her and was now making fun of her fail. Was this a crazy Cleffa? Was their a designated portion of the cavern dedicated to be a mental asylum and she had unknowingly waltzed over the threshold?

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Nova decided to try a Quick attack, as it had worked before on the younger Clefairy.

Instead, her legs refused to push off running and instead she nearly stumbled to the ground. _Was I hit?_ Nova wondered, but mentally checking herself over, she noticed nothing wrong.

No, something was wrong. She felt the familiar trickle of power rising in her throat-this time like bile, as she knew this power had failed her more times than helped. Nova tried to cut off the growing Shadow ball but she had no control over her own powers. _Are you stupid? Come on! You just saw what happened? IT WENT RIGHT THROUGH IT! _Nova yelled at her brain. She released it at the Clefairy involuntarily. What surprised her was that the Clefairy did not seem surprised or shocked at her apparent stupidity of using a completely ineffective move. Instead, it just approached walking straight through the faux attack and powered up its fist.

Nova took a defensive step back in order to hope to placate her spinning mind and have a chance to re-access the situation. She couldn't stop using her Shadow Ball!

Nova tried to calm herself down by taking deep breaths but she felt her body forming another Shadow ball instead. Now the only thing she could think of was 'Shadow Ball Hiccups' which, she reflected moments later, was completely stupid and also non-existent.

SLAP!SLAP!SLAP!SLA-

The flustered Eevee tried to refocus as she realized she was being attacked. Doubleslap. Again. Her face being thrust from one side to another and she found herself completely unable to defend herself against its attack with all her energy going into the not at all useful Shadow balls. The one Nova had in her mouth shot uncontrolled at the wall, making a small crack in the frame of the cave.

Black spots seared across her vision as she fought to control herself. All she could focus on was a pink Clefairy taking her time to punch the living daylights out of her.

Then it stopped, regaining sense, Nova pulled herself up and assessed what had happened. Missile had just landed right next to her and had just finished an attack on Clefairy, causing it to retreat, obviously not wanting to fight two opponents.

"...Are you alright?" Missile buzzed nervously, awkwardly steadying her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nova sighed, then registered that Missile was indeed _speaking_. Something she had only heard two or three times.

"That move you used...Shadow ball...it does not seem to effect them." Missile spoke as if he was just testing out his vocal cords, taking pauses between words, yet this voice rang clear. His voice was deep and somewhat pleasant. _Like honey,_ Nova thought, laughing to herself, _I always imagined he would talk in a high pitched voice and mumble. _

Through him speaking to her, Nova knew that somewhere along the lines of the past two weeks, she had unwittingly earning Missile's respect. This thought warmed her heart and she smiled at their comradeship before she cleared her head to focus on his question.

"Ah-no. I was trying to use Quick attack but everything I did turned into Shadow ball. It was really strange." Then a thought popped up in Nova's mind. "Hey, your attacks worked really well, you got a lot stronger."

Missile's face shifted into what she guessed was a smile but was a little creepy. "No...I did not do much training...only some with Sam sir and Kurt. My attacks seem...stronger against them...than ever before..."

_Sam sir? I bet he would like that. Kurt doesn't get a honorific, I guess. Well he is pretty wacky. _Nova thought, smiling inwardly.

"Ah...we...I should rejoin the battle." Suggested Missile and wide-eyed Nova agreed, inwardly hitting herself on the head.

Through fighting off the masses of Clefairy, Nova somehow found herself nearly back to back with Gold. It was when she saw him that she realized that, though this battle had seemed like hours, in reality, it had only been five minutes. Remembering this, a wave of dread shook Nova to her core. Missile was now defending an exhausted pair of Police Pokemon. That meant there were only three Pokemon to face the foe Clefairy, who, discluding the young Clefairy who lost the battle and a few who had been bested in battle and dragged themselves off to the rocky walls of the cavern, still had a score of fighters.

Gold however was still battling harshly, knocking one down before curling up and nailing them again, turning only to repeat it for another one while the last was recovering.

Feeling the need to help her teammate out, Nova tackled one of the Clefairy away from him. Gold gave her a grateful smirk as he wiped blood from above his eye. The Clefairy was recovering now. Seconds earlier, it had had scratches and the beginnings of bruises but as soon as it stood back up, it looked as good as new. Renewed, it ambled over and aimed its three sharp nails at her face. Startled, Nova took a step back and avoided the attack, defending with a Quick attack that nailed the larger Pokemon in the chest. Quickly, she jumped back and countered with her own attack, not a Shadow ball thankfully, she could use her other attacks again, Quick attack.

Sucessfully, she nailed the larger Pokemon in the chest, causing them to both fall backwards. As soon as they landed, Nova sprung to her feet and put distance between them again.

She needed the upper hand.

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><p><strong>Please review! I would really <strong>**appreciate it because it's hard to tell what people want or what Pokemon people want included or what your favorite or least favorite quirks of characters are or what you want expanded on.**

**So please, if you have any comments, ideas, suggestions let me know and I'll consider every one of them!**

**Have a lovely day full of rainbow sunshine.**


	18. Poison

**Alright, this'll be my first chapter written as a 17 year old. Somehow, I doubt it will make a difference in my writing, but you know, if it sounds more mature, you'll now why (itstotallynotgonnahappen)**

**Also, I sat down yesterday and outlined the next two arcs of the story so expect an update sooner rather than later!**

**We are fast approaching the climax of this arc!**

**1st arc: Discovery and New World chapters 1-12 (a sub-arc being 'Teammates' 8-12)**

**2nd arc: Boulder chapter 13-17**

**3rd arc: Mount Moon 18-?**

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><p>It had been nearly ten minutes since the battle had begun.<p>

I was tired.

I was frustrated.

And we were losing.

It had really become apparent the last few minutes, as the Clefairy started to push us further back and our bodies had begun to slow down while the waves of Clefairy would either heal themselves or simply be replaced with a new one. Even Gold was taking a beating.

In the short instances that I had to recharge between moves, I looked around at the rest of my team. Their faces showed hopelessness.

Then I realized something, glancing over at Gold, who had stopped punching and was now on defense, doing his best to block oncoming attacks, his mouth set in a grim line.

What he couldn't do. I had been depending on him to make a call for this battle but now I realized that my teammate could not admit defeat. He was not able to say the words we all so desperately needed to hear.

So I did.

...

"Run! Everyone, retreat and scatter!" I yelled on the top of my lungs. Instantaneously, all of us moved with the feeble stores of energy we had left, for the closest tunnel. From surveying the area before, I knew there were three, discluding the passage to where Sam and the others were, so I took the first one available.

Darting through it, I heard a commanding voice ordering some of her Clefairy to chase after me. _Wonderful, Luna thinks I'm the leader. _Panting hard, I followed the shrinking, dark tunnel through disorienting twists and turns. Focusing and pointing my large ears behind me, I guessed that I had more than two Clefairy but no more than four following me. Irritatingly, the tunnel thinned, but never got too small for the pursuing Clefairy. The only thing I had going for me was my speed, I was faster than them, but I was tiring while their ambling pace stayed exactly the same.

I approached a jagged ninety degree turn, unable to risk slowing, inched over so I was running in the sloped corner between the cave floor and arched wall, helping me turn.

By now, my feet ached, I was miserable and I honestly just wanted to curl up somewhere with Sam.

Up ahead was a small cavern with a fork in the road. Panicked, I skid to a stop, hating decisions. I anxiously shuffled in front of them, I had less than fifteen seconds before the Clefairy caught up to me. Then I saw a thick crack where the floor met the wall, about seven or eight inches wide and it appeared relatively deep. Wasting no, time, I wriggled inside. managing to tuck my tail in beside my cramped body just as the Clefairy reached the cavern.

They too, paused momentarily.

"Which way?" Chirped one.

"Hnnn..."

I stopped breathing, knowing their hearing was superior even to mine.

"Let's go left, there's a few paw prints in front of it and I believe I can hear a faint scrape of rocks." The second Clefairy responded. I knew the paw prints were mine but I wondered in fear if another of my teammates were in that tunnel some how. I had no idea where I was, so it might have been close to the moon cavern.

I guessed they would only take half a minute to decide that I hadn't come through that way and reappear, so seconds after their paw steps faded, I squeezed out of the crack and sprinted towards the right fork. As I moved as fast as my small, inexperienced legs could carry me, I heard high-pitched squeaks of protest as they no doubt heard me. Panicked, I pushed myself faster and faster to the point I was nearly using quick attack and started taking turns through the veined tunnels at random.

I checked behind me again, still running numbly, vaguely wondering if I would ever find my way back.

SMACK!

_Wh-whoaaa._

A couple seconds after the world tilted its usually steady axis, I realized that I had probably just hit something, pretty hard too. It must have been sharp, I realized, disoriented, bringing a paw up to my shoulder that had made contact with something pointier than a cave wall. A few drops of blood dribbled lazily off my paw. Thankfully, it wasn't a bad injury. "Hey, are you okay?" A voice said.

Startled, I jumped, swiveling my head to the direction of the voice from where I lay in an awkward heap on the floor.

The voice was not just a voice, but a body. Belonging to a purple-ish brown, spiky rodent.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. But...did I just run into you?" I asked, pulled myself up.

"Yes. You ran smack dab, straight into me," The Pokemon replied, sitting up and shaking himself, righting his spines, "I'm Nidoran. Male. The distinction is very important in our species, for reasons I don't understand."

"Oh. I'm Nova, an eevee." I told him, my brain still trying to catch up with what was occurring.

"Nice to me you, Nova the Eevee. So why were in such a rush back there?" Nidoran further inquired.

Instantly, I was reminded of everything. I needed to find my team! "Oh, I'm sorry, but I really have to go, I need to find my friends, they're in danger!" I told in running off.

Unfortuneatly, I only made it a couple of steps before I realized I was running on numb legs and a woozy feeling.

_Had I collided with Nidoran harder than I thought?_

I hit the floor with no resistance. A few seconds later, Nidoran appeared in front of me, crouching low so I could see him. He looked flustered.

"Mad Murkrow! You're poisoned! I poisoned you! Well, I didn't you ran into me but you must have hit one of my spikes!" He chattered, ears stick-straight. He gently pushed me to my side.

"There it is! It drew blood, that's how you got poisoned!" He returned to my sight range, face extremely close to mine. "_Why didn't you tell me I got you?"_ He asked as if I was stupid.

Focusing, I formed coherent speech. "I didn't know you were _poisonous._" Nidoran just scoffed.

"Well, at any rate, it's fine. My poison is a relatively ineffectual poison than others. I totally can fix this." He told me, refocusing on my wounded shoulder.

"Alright-tha-Hey what are you doing?!" I exclaimed at the frozen Nidoran, eyeing me, tongue sticking out, poised to lick my cut. His face would have been completely hilarious if I hadn't been so confused.

Nidoran brought his tongue back in his mouth. "I was _trying_ to give you the anti-venom."

"It's on your tongue?" I asked dumbly.

"It's my saliva. I eat toxic plants so I have to be able to digest it too." Nidoran explained returning to my shoulder. "Just sit tight for a minute so I can fix this."

I sighed and let him treat me. Then a thought hit me. "Wait, you said there were several types of poison?"

"Yeah. Fourteen types to be exact. Each poison pokemon can have a different one but it really depends on the pokemon's species, personality, age and level. A couple of them are fatal if left untreated but most are not harmful and a pokemon can recover with a few days of rest and the right berries and stuff." He replied easily.

"Fatal?"

"Yep, but you'd have to go get impaled by a Nidoqueen or something to get one of the deadly ones and even then, many pokemon prefer to avoid the deadly types."

"You can have more than one type?" I inquired, trying to get a hold of this concept.

"Definitely, I once knew a Nidoking with mastery over _twelve _poisons. Not me though, you can tell by my horn how potent my poison is." I looked at his horn, now that I loked closer, I realized it was relatively small and dull, only coming out about three inches.

"In fact," he continued, "it probably only effected you because you're so small and your blood was pumping so fast, it usually just causes disorientation. Alright, I'm done." He told her, standing up.

"Thanks, Nidoran." I dipped my head towards him in respect and turned away towards the direction I had come. "But I really need to go find my teammates. They-"

"-might be in danger." Nidoran finished plaintively. "Yes, you already said that but how are you gonna get back? Do you know these tunnels?"

I sagged my ears in defeat. "I- I am completely lost. I'm just planning to start trying them at random." I admitted.

"Heh. Not to worry. I'll help you out. I know this place like I know my spikes."

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><p><strong>TUNNEL 2:<strong>

"Where are we?" Gold growled furiously.

"Ah...we seem to be...moving in circles..." Came Missile's quiet response and he floated next to the raging sandshrew.

"So ya pick right _now_ to speak up? We've been walking for ten minutes!" Gold exclaimed. "Aw, jeez. Why'd I have to get stuck with the bug?"

"...You picked the tunnel after I did..."

"Not on purpose!"

"We've made a complete circle again..."

Gold screamed in frustration. _Why me?_ He thought, he hated being underground.

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><p><strong>TUNNEL 1:<strong>

"You said you ran through here?"

"Yes, I can't remember which tunnel I orginally came through though. I did a lot of doubling back..." Nova replied, watching the as the Nidoran sniffed the cave floor.

"Awesome! I found your scent! Jeez, that's strong. You must have been pretty freaked."

"You can smell...emotions?" Nova asked, not following.

Nidoran laughed and strange, squeaky laugh. "Well, sort of. There are slight differences in smell when a pokemon is scared, excited or calm, I'm just reading off that. Out of ground, I'm no where near as good as scenting, but down here where the scents linger because there's no wind, I can easily track a scent."

"Huh. That's really cool. You'll have to show me how sometime." Nova told him.

Nidoran blushed and looked away. "Yeah, maybe."

The two pokemon continued up through the tunnel, Nidoran leading the way, rabbit-like nose to the ground, dutifully snuffling, body pressed low enough to the ground that his discolored eevee companion nearly stood as tall as him.

"So, I was wondering, well, why didn't you try to attack me? When you realized I was poisoned, that is. Why did you help me out?"

"I'm not a very violent pokemon, you might have noticed. I guess I'm a lover not a fighter." Nidoran told as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "I guess I do enjoy battles but I don't like hurting pokemon who I don't have a problem with."

Nova nodded, realizing that if Sam had ordered her to, she would have unhesitatingly attacked Nidoran.

"Hey, I think we're here." Nidoran informed Nova, crouching just under the cover of a shadow cast by the tunnel, shading him from the bright glow of the moon.

"Yep, that's them all right." Nova confirmed quietly.

Nidoran winced. "You forgot to mention that you were going against the Clefairy tribe when you mentioned 'trouble'."

"They are the trouble. The want to blow this place up." The eevee informed him grimly.

"What? They're usually so peaceful..." Nidoran shook his head in confusion.

"Shh!" Nova hissed sharply. pushing herself further down onto the cave floor. Luna approached the explosive device, hand reaching out towards the newly repaired button. Her army stood behind her, all visibly prepared to enter the moonstone the second she hit the button.

Nova, terrified, burst out of her hiding place and stood in front of the tribe of Clefairy.

_Sam, Gold, Missile, Rae, Kurt, Igglybuff, Cleffa, Azurill, Abra..._

"Don't you dare press that button! _Everyone I care about is in this cave!_" She growled ferociously, hackles rising.

Luna wore an expression that was half amused and half pained as she lowered her hand from the explosive and studied the angry eevee.

"...You...and what Pokemon?" Luna inquired quietly but with deadly seriousness.

_Just me, _Nova thought, chills running down her spine. _Nidoran told me he doesn't like to fight. And I can't involve him in a fight that would ruin his standings with his neighbors. That's not fair. It's just me...maybe I can hold them off? _

_I'll..._

_I'll try._

"Jeez...," A strong, familiar voice came from across the group of Clefairy. Startled, they parted revealing Gold, arms crossed and tail swishing, backed by Missile, who was holding his stingers up in front of him, ready to fight. "I really hate cliques. Can we try that entrance again?"

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><p><strong>Until next time! Please review and tell me what characters you like or what I could improve on!<strong>


	19. Luna's Final Verdict

**Second chapter today!**

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><p>Nova looked around. A stand-off. Her and Nidoran at one tunnel, Luna and her tribe poised near the explosive and Gold and Missile directly behind them.<p>

Luna was no fool. She knew if she so much as breathed closer to the button, Gold would be beating down Clefairy, making it impossible for them to enter the moonstone. She did not look willing to sacrifice her own. For a few moments, it was dead silent.

"Okay, where is the logic in all of us retreating only to meet up again in the _same place _we ran away from fifteen minutes later?" Gold asked. Honestly, Nova had been wondering the same exact thing. But as he said those words, she realized that there was an advantage.

"There is one thing. With the little extra time we had, I figured out a few things we should know about Clefairy. Some of it, in hindsight, I should have known but..." Nova continued in a strong, confident voice.

"First, Clefairy aren't _psychic_ they're normal types. That's why my shadow balls didn't work and that's why Gold had an advantage. Second, They get power from the moon. That's why they fought as close as they could to the hole in the ceiling. They were reviving themselves with _moonlight."_

By now, the Clefairy looked nervous and even Luna was grimacing slightly. Nova continued on as part of her incomplete plan was simply to distract them.

"And finally, Clefairy may be powerful but they are slow. I figured that one out while they were chasing me and when I saw Missile fighting them with rapid attacks they couldn't keep up with. If I were to use a couple Quick Attacks right now, I could probably knock any one of you out right now." Nova said, hoping they wouldn't call her slight bluff. It would take more than a few hits for one of them to go down.

There were a few seconds of silence before Gold spoke up. "Heh. Guess she gotcha there. Give it up."

Nidoran stepped out next to Nova, to her surprise. "Yeah she's pretty tough and I'm not bad either so don't try us."

"...Shrimpy! Watch out...there is a Pokemon behind you..." Missile the Beedrill called out to Nova, his cry at the loudness of a normal conversational tone.

_Shrimpy..?_

"Huh?"

Gold started laughing so hard he was practically bawling. And then she remembered. When she had first introduced herself to Missile back when he was a Weedle, Gold had interrupted and said her name was Shrimpy.

_He'd spent the last two weeks thinking that was my name? Is he that out of it?_

"MY NAME'S NOVA!" Nova Shrimpy screeched.

Gold frowned, wiping tears from his eyes and recovering from his hysteria and turning to Nidoran. "Who're you?"

Nova interrupted, calming down slightly, now that Missile had keeled over from the stress of being yelled at. She only felt a little guilty. She knew Gold well enough to realize this was going nowhere good. "This is Nidoran. He helped me out."

"You'll need all the help you can get," Luna growled. "You are, and always will be, severely outnumbered."

Nova was going to reply when she saw something that absolutely made her heart soar. "...Maybe not."

Out of the next tunnel came just who she desperately needed to see through this nightmare.

Sam.

Sam with Rae, Kurt and Abra.

Nova and Sam made eye-contact and he ran to her, scooped her up and hugged her to his chest in a moment of pure euphoria.

'Vee-ee!' Nova practically sang.

"I was so worried about you guys!" Sam told her.

"Hey guys, cut out the mush-fest. We're kind of in a situation if ya can't tell." Gold said pointedly, but even his words couldn't negate the grin of relief on his face.

Sam, though he didn't understand Gold's words, seemed to read the room's tension and set Nova down, examining the situation.

"Is that a bomb?" Rae asked, wide-eyed.

'Ee,' Nova nodded somberly.

The humans chorused a sharp intake of breath.

"You can't blow this place up! You'll kill people!" Rae protested, in complete shock.

Gold huffed and rolled his eyes at her weak protest.

Luna actually sneered. "Of course the humans are worried about their own kind. Typical."

"That isn't true! They care about all of us!" Nova argued, frustrated that the Clefairy was seeing things in such a skewed manner.

"Stop this! Please Clefairy!" Sam said trying to take a step toward. Instantly, Luna's small hand whipped over the button and her eyes narrowed. Sam froze and stepped back again, raising his hands slightly in defeat.

'Clllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeefffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaa!' The missing Pokemon's high-pitched voice rang clear in the moon cave. Everyone's heads whipped around to the noise.

"_A child_?" Luna wondered sharply.

There, in the entrance to the third tunnel stood Cleffa, Azurill and Igglybuff.

"Cleffa!" Rae cried, completely relieved. The tiny star Pokemon gave her a large grin and started making her way over to her trainer before she noticed the tension in the room. About half away across, right in front of Luna and the explosive, she swiveled on her feet and faced Luna, as if on instinct.

"What...is this child doing here?" Luna spoke softly, but with some anger in her voice.

"She's with us." Nova put in, watching Luna carefully.

Luna removed her hand from the button again and hesitantly, crouched down and gently lay her hand atop Cleffa's head, as if she might get burned.

"Child, why are you here. It is dangerous. Enter the crystal with us and you will be protected," Luna told Cleffa softly.

Upset Cleffa shook her head and argued back, her words where so soft-spoken, Nova couldn't pick out most of them.

"...You do not know what you mean by that," Luna replied.

Cleffa started making wide gestures, first at a worried Rae, then at Nova and the other Police Pokemon.

Luna looked pensive. "You are quite inquisitive, small Cleffa. Though you are young, your brilliance is quite astounding. However, I still see no other way to..." Luna trailed off as Cleffa spoke again, this time even faster. Luna's eyes dawned in realization.

"Child, you are absolutely right." She stayed at Cleffa's eye level for a few more moments as if she could delve into Cleffa's mind through her eyes before returning to address the Pokemon in the large cavern.

"Your friend here has pleaded your case and suggested an alternate option for our escape. We will fufill this one instead of our original plan." Luna declared, then closing her eyes, she glowed blue and slowly and systematically, the machine was dismantled. Within thirty seconds, the machine that would have been the death of them all was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal on the cave floor.

Nova sighed. It seemed this nightmare had finally come to the end. She shuddered to think what could have happened had Cleffa not arrived.

Luna turned to Nova with what might be a humbled expression. "On behalf of the Clefairy Tribe of Mount Moon-"

She was cut off suddenly by the two grunts from before that had caused the cave-in.

_No. No. No! _Nova thought. _Everything was going so well! Why can't we have a break?!_

_"_Heh heh. I think we found 'em." One sneered.

"After all that trouble we went ta take a couple'a 'Fairies, we better'a er else I'd hafta make 'nother cave in," The second laughed.

Nova wrinkled her nose. Those two were disgusting. Nidoran narrowed his eyes.

"I've seen these shmucks before, they're bad news," he warned.

"Yeah, these guys are the ones who gave us trouble in the first place," Nova explained, not taking her eyes off the offenders.

The first turned to the trainers and sneers. "Hey, thanks for helping us find these Clefairy you guys," She taunted.

"Heh. Yeah, we're real glad fer yer directions," the second put in.

Sam looked angry now. "You know perfectly well we never would help the likes of you. Back off."

Luna looked torn for a second before she slowly approached the two grunts. "I believe...that they are telling the truth. And you are not." She gestured to the trainers first and then at Team Magna. Though they could not understand her words, her sentiment was obvious. At her words, Luna's Clefairy formed a semi-circle around the two offenders, battle-ready.

One of the grunts sneered. "You should have just given up. Now we'll have to do this the hard way," she said, tossing her Pokeballs.

Out came Ekans, Paras and Geodude.

Nova was floored. Where they really so cocky that they believed that they could win with three Pokemon? Regardless, Nova and the other Pokemon joined them in their wall of adversity.

"Let's go!" Luna shouted, and at her signal all the Pokemon attacked. When the dust finally cleared, the three smoking Pokemon lay on the ground, fainted while the two grunts where unconscious.

Luna made her way around the downed snake Pokemon and approached the humans. She lay a hand on their foreheads, focused her energy and looked up. Then she touched every one of their Pokeballs.

"I have wiped the human's memory. In addition, the next time their Pokemon are released, they will no longer be bound to their masters and may go if they so desire." Luna explained. She stared at each and every one of the other Pokemon and humans before finally speaking again. "Cleffa...Shrimp-I mean, Nova, pardon, humans and friends...thank you. For showing us another way. We now will not have any deaths in our hands."

Luna accepted a silver disc that Cleffa had pulled out of her bag and the Cleffa all surrounded it, all touching it with their hands. After a full minute they released it and it was released back into Cleffa's grasp, as she carried it over her head, toddling back to Rae.

"We have just learned the move Yawn. We will walk to the cave entrance after you are all a safe distance away and perform it together. All the human scientists will be asleep and we will be able to leave. And without any energy output coming from our cave the humans will have no reason to stay. That is what Cleffa told me and my calculations and data I have collected from them confirms this theory. 99.8% success rate. Now only one thing remains."

Sam walked over to her slowly, making sure the Clefairy was aware of him, which she was, of course.

He crouched down in the came way Clefairy had done to be at the eye-level of Cleffa. "Thank you for trusting us. We won't tell anyone where you are. Your secret is safe with us." He assured her, holding out a hand.

Luna hesitated, cheeks blushing, she slowly raised her arm and finally placed it within his larger one. Sam gently but firmly shook it. "It's a promise." He said seriously. Clefairy nodded and as Sam returned to the side, Clefairy diverted her eyes, still blushing slightly more than usual. Then she beckoned Cleffa over to her and reached inside her chest. A pale glow emitted from her hand as she removed three soft blue shards.

"These are moonstones. You can store them inside of you. Keep them with you and someday, when you are strong enough, you will be able to grow into a powerful new form with their assistance. Until then, they will help to strength your spirit. They are precious treasures. Keep them safe." Clefairy told her, placing them into Cleffa arms. Taking a deep breath, Cleffa emitted a blue glow and the rocks disappeared easily into her chest as if they were simply illusions.

The Clefairy cheered for them as they were left to travel the last thirty feet to the tunnel entrance. Sam smiled brightly as he saw the sunlight and Nova couldn't resist the hop in her step caused by overwhelming glee.

_We helped save lives._

Kurt pulled out the map he had made.

"Well we definitely can't give them this," He said, holding it out, examining it, and replacing it in his bag. "The good news is that I wrote it entirely in my personal form of short-hand. It's positively illegible to anyone besides me and Abra."

Sam laughed, "Makes me wonder why you wrote it in short hand in the first place though."

Any response Kurt might have had to that was cut off by a familiar brownish purple, spiny figure blocking their path.

Nova gasped in surprise. "Nidoran! What are you doing?"

Nidoran looked over at her for a second, then back to Sam. "I want to be part of your team. Your trainer is incredible. It would be an honor if I could serve him. If that is alright with both of you, of course," He said.

"Of course it's fine with me!" Nova assured him.

Sam was starting to figure it out now. "Do you want to come with me, Nova, Gold and Missile, big guy?" Sam gently placed a hand on the back of Nidoran's tough skin and rubbed between his spikes carefully, looking to see how the large rodent pokemon would react.

'raaaaaaa' Nidoran answered cheerfully, leaning into Sam's hand.

_I never realized this, but he must have been really lonely... _Nova thought to herself.

"Alright, new teammate," Sam said, reaching an arm back and pulling out a new Pokeball. "Welcome to the team." He held the Pokeball a foot in front of Nidoran and excited, Nidoran charged at it with a grin. As his horn hit it, he was sucked in and the Pokeball instantly caught him. Critical capture.

Sam, smiled widely. "A Nidoran! I've always loved Nidoran! Awesome! A new member of the team!" He cheered, scooping up Nova briefly and releasing Nidoran.

'Nido!' Nidoran cheered as he materialized.

Gold, scoffed, probably upset that he didn't get to battle him before he became a member.

"Hey Nidoran? Is it alright if I name you? I thought of a pretty cool name just now." Sam told him.

'Ra!' Nidoran responded.

"Alright! Here it is- Poison!" He said, picking up the twenty pound poison-type and holding him out in front of him.

Rae _tsk-ed _"Such a guy name."

Poison's face grinned even larger than before. "Poison. I like it. It fits. Thank you."

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><p><strong><strong>Shout out to <strong>**Kalareon****, who suggested Nidoran as a teammate!****

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading this chapter.<strong>

**Also to explain something, Luna was blushing partially because she was ****embarrassed and shy from the promise because she didn't need to ask for it and also, she had previously thought of humans as bad, but now Sam showed her that they aren't. It's generally accepted for Pokemon to hold humans in a high regard, so Sam treating her like an equal and offering a gesture of friendship like he did left her somewhat starstruck.**

**Basically, it's like a lighter version of what Bayleef has for Ash.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	20. When It's Something You Said

**Hello people who may or may not actually be reading this fic, new chapter! yay**

**Also I'm writing this with dilated eyeballs so It's kind of hard to see what I'm typing but I'm in the writing mood not a planning mood so nothing can be done about that I suppose.****  
><strong>

**Also I'm accepting OC's for both rivals for Sam and also just simple battles along the way. If you want a character to appear in the story, then post the following filled out:**

**NAME:**

**AGE:  
><strong>

**GENDER:**

**APPEARANCE:**

**PERSONALITY:**

**POKEMON TEAM (with short (or longer if you want to try being a rival) descriptions including nicknames, personality and attacks or special stats)**

**GOAL (optional):**

**QUIRKS (optional)**

**SOMETHING YOU WANT S/HE TO SAY/CATCHPHRASE (optional): **

**PREFERRED TOWN TO MEET IN (optional):**

**OTHER (optional):**

**This is the beginning of the fourth arc: Golden Age!**

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><p><strong>PART IV<strong>

It had been two days since Sam, Kurt, Rae and their respective Pokémon had left Mount Moon and the Clefairy. Once outside, they had had a relatively easy time acting confused and pretended to have amnesia. The scientists, upset but not shocked, had let them so on their way with a 'you tried' and a pat on their back. The whole team as in noticeably good mood. None more so than Nova, who would trot over to Sam and then double back around to their newest teammate, Poison the Nidoran.

She reflected during the two days of travel, she messed with Gold, who was getting steadily grumpier, she got to know Poison(who she thought was hilarious; they'd laugh along each other for hours), she attempted to coax Missile into a conversation, purposefully tripped Abra (to the slight glee of Gold) and rode on Sam's shoulder.

But mostly she reflected. She was having the time of her life. She was absolutely content. Nova had been traveling side by side with her trainer, Sam for the last 23 days, but her old life seemed nothing but a dull gray nightmare far behind her now.

Because she was stronger. And they were going to prove it. Sam had told her that they were approaching the next town. And it had a Pokemon Gym.

It was growing dark that night and the stars were glowing strongly above the the large blazing campfire, expertly fashioned by the three trainers (and a certain eevee who tried to help but nearly ended up _being_ the fire). Sam and Kurt sat next to each other on a log near the fire while Nova lay at Sam's feet, admiring the cinders.

"...And that's not all! You could just have Poison put a little bit of his poison in those Grunt's leader's food and he's out! Or you could teach Poison to take an impotent chemical I heard some poison types can make and you could rake in some cash..." Kurt explained to Sam wide-eyed in excitement.

Poison, who was sprawled out near the two boys had a large grin across his face, obviously enjoying the attention.

_For a guy who was such a loner he really likes the attention. _Nova twitched her ears in amusement because of Poison's reaction. _He's gonna fit right in here._

Around her, everyone was immersed in their own activities. Gold was very occupied sulking out of the firelight, Missile was using wax he produced to wax his wings. When Nova had asked him a few minutes before he had told her it made them stronger and more wind-resistant. Abra was busy scurrying from the fire to any place around them touched by the dancing firelight, throwing small twigs in the fire only to have them be almost immediately incinerated and driving him off to find more.

Rae and who Nova now nicknamed the P3s (for Pokemon Police Patrol/Posse (they had started grappling with their official name)) were trying to write a letter explaining everything to Rae's mother about how she couldn't make the train and was now traveling with two boys. To which Nova had tried communicating was a bad move, given the connotations that might come from that, but in the end, Rae didn't understand and Nova gave up.

Eventually, the Pokemon belonging to Sam naturally congregated.

"So, Poison, what kind of moves do you know?" Nova inquired, hoping that bringing up a light topic that would interest the on-edge sandshrew of the group whould help the two new teammates bond.

"Huh...although I've never really battled...I know I have Peck, Poison Sting, of course," Poison started listing off, "and Double Kick."

Gold sneered, crossing his short arms. "Double Kick's a fighting-type move. There's no point, they've already _got _a fighting-type on the team. Gold told him snidely, motioning to himself.

The Nidoran lost the insult altogether in his confusion. "Aren't sandshrew _ground-type_? Why do you keep saying you're a fighting type?"

_Oh no. _Though she had no idea how Gold would react to this seemingly innocent question, Nova still had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Gold's smallish fists clenched tightly and his claws grappled to hold them there. He sprang up and stood in the front of the poison-type as taught as a tension cord. A large embarrassed blush had spread across his cheeks and his eyes glowed like hot coals. "_You_," he enunciated slowly, "don't know anythin'. So just shut yer mouth and don't ya dare open it again. Y'hear me?" As Gold stormed off they heard, "Go back from where ya came from ya dumb rat."

_Wh-what? He didn't act like this when I asked him when we first met, what's bothering him so much?_

Determined to fix it, Nova jumped over the log maneuvered across a couple fallen branches and moved to stand in front the retreating sandshrew.

"H-hey Gold, wait. Let's go back, we can figure everything out back with everyone else. We don't think it's weird you can't dig, in fact, I can't even_ imagine _you being an actual ground-type!" Nova said, trying to lighten his mood.

...

Time seemed to slow down for both Pokemon as they both processed the words just said. Nova flinched back, biting her tongue. Her words had come out entirely wrong. Gold, who had stopped when she had followed him, turned away slightly, eyes filled with a mixture of betrayal and anger. Clearly not able to find the appropriate way to react, he continued off into the darkness.

This time, Nova didn't follow him but stayed rooted to the ground, trying to process what she'd just done to one of her best friends. As realization struck, tears pricked her eyes

...-can't even imagine you being an actual ground-type...

_...can't even imagine..._

_Everything, those times he actually showed he didn't _mind_ being on a team with me, its ruined. He's never going to forget this. I broke something inside of him just now...now I don't know if it's…irreparable..._

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><p><strong>Yep, that's the chapter. unusually short? Yes. But necessary for drama. I tried putting more into this one but it made it sound awkward.<strong>


	21. Cerulean Sightings

**Alright guys sorry for the delay, I was at a christian sports camp on the ocean for a week, then about a day after, I went to a Mission Trip in West Virginia, after that I spent an awful week in a shack on a lake with less than the Edge network, fortunately, I did a lot of planning for this story while I was there. The week after that I spent at my grandma's house, but I'm back now.**

**Also, 1.5k is roughly the minimum for one of my chapters, anything less and I will apologize, more and I'll be happy. Just so you know because my chapters vary a lot. ^_^**

**Thank you so much to **loveandfriendship **for reviewing! You're the best. Seriously, I mean it. This is for you.**

**! Finally, I am accepting OCs of Pokémon and trainers so look at the last chapter to find the information you need to fill out to have your character in this story. Also tell me your characters ****affiliation, good (grew up near Kurt or Rae?) or bad (Team Magna perhaps?) or neutral (just traveling?).**

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><p>A few minutes after Gold had left, Nova was able to compose herself enough to returned to the group. When she had returned, she played her flustered emotions off as if Gold wanted to take a walk alone and she had been embarrassed that she followed. So, within a minute, the subject of discussion changed, to the relief of the concerned eevee. Poison the Nidoran animatedly recapped what Sam had said while she was gone-that the next town, known as Cerulean City, had a Gym. Nova vaguely understood that Poison was trying to discuss stratedgy with her but after she made no effort to contribute to the one-sided conversation, he gave up and left to sleep, undaunted by her slightly rude behavior. Nova sat in the cold air for several minutes before taking a place near the fading embers of the fire.<p>

Later that night, Gold returned and fell asleep, resting against a tree.

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><p>The next morning, everyone got up early, packed camp and started along the road. Just as they were reaching the city limits, Gold came to a dead stop. Nova, forgetting the current rift between her and her teammate, came up to the blind-sided sandshrew.<p>

"What is it, Gold? Do you sense something?" Nova stuck her nose in the air and tried deciphering the scents. It smelled a lot like Pewter City except less earthy and more...crisp.

"No no-we can't be... we can't _be here_!" Gold yelled, eyes wide, head whipping around. Missile, being jumpy as he was, reacted poorly to the faux-ground type's distress and started flitting around madly. Poison barreled past Sam in an effort to find out what was happening while Nova stood, feeling like stone and wishing she knew what was happening.

"Wha-what's wrong with you guys?" Sam protested. The three humans stood, shocked, as Nova and Poison tried to talk to Gold and calm Missile, respectively.

"Do you think its the excitement of the city?" Sam ventured uneasily, eyeing his Pokemon cautiously.

"I don't know, they've seemed kind of tense today, they might be quarreling." Rae pondered, hand on her chin in thought.

"Right then, I'll recall them." One by one, Sam recalled Gold, Missile, and Poison. Finally, he held Nova's enlarged Pokéball in his hand. Nova instinctively knew, despite her distance, that it was hers. Sam held it out in front of him, frozen in thought.

_I'll respect any decision he makes, _Nova thought, sitting down in a gesture of compliance. After a second of consideration, Sam laughed to himslef. "Ha, I can't seem to do it, makes me a pretty lame trainer, huh? Most trainers always carry _their_ Pokemon in Pokeballs. Well, I guess I was never gonna be a normal trainer, Come here, Nova."

Nova could barely restrain a squeak of joy as she bounded over to Sam and jumped into his lowered arms and rubbed nher head affectionatly against his chin as he brought her to his chest.

As they walked under the sign announcing Cerulean City, Kurt thought of something. "What's first on the agenda?"

"How about we got to the Poké-" Sam started.

"Look at those cute little booths!" Rae exclaimed, already moving towards the small, seasonal stands. Nova looked at Kurt and Sam. who both shrugged and followed. The team approached the first booth that was run by a kind looking old lady. In an effort to examine her wares, Nova clumsily scaled Sam and balanced precariously on his shoulder.

"Hello dearies, can I interest you in any backpacks for your travels?" She asked, "They're nearly indestructible. I have different sizes and colors as well..." Nova zoned out of the conversation and decided to survey their surroundings like any vigilant Pokemon in charge of defending three humans would do.

Nearby, a young boy and his Slowpoke were walking through crowds of less interesting people. Nova's green eyes continued to follow the boy and his companion as he proceeded to push a brown, sticky looking food inside of a cone shaped holder, into a young girl's face. Shrieking what Nova presumed was the boy's name, the girl tried to wipe the brown smudges off her pink, lacy dress. Giving up, the girl wiped the substance off her face with his sleeve and followed in pursuit of the boy.

Turning her attention back to Sam now, she watched Sam hand a handful of Poké over to the lady after she accepted three backpacks. "Yeah! I love this! To the next booth!" Rae cheered, racing ahead, tailed by an equally excited Kurt.

When Nova and the others caught up, Kurt was already browsing miscellaneous stacks of clothes and accessories. Quickly, he picked out a pair of brown camouflage fingerless gloves with darker brown wristbands and a faded green camo bandana.

Rae sifted through the shirts and found a white scoop neck she liked. Sam looked through the T-shirts and within minutes, everyone was ready to check out. Kurt had added a black T-shirt and dark green cargo pants and Sam adding a dark red shirt and dark jeans. Just as Nova was reflecting on how impressive their pile was and why humans felt the need to wear clothes, Rae set down some jean shorts and a braided leather belt.

"That'll be all," she said, slightly sheepish, to the booth owner. After the money had been exchanged, the trainers conceded their shopping trip tot he pleasure of Nova, who was feeling quite bored without any Pokémon to keep her company while Sam was distracted.

Having no idea where the Pokémon Center was, Kurt asked a helpful stranger, who gladly pointed them in the right direction.

Rae paused through the team's now much smaller wallet of funds. "I don't think we're using our Poké very well..." She frowned.

"Huh? How do you mean?" Kurt asked, glancing at her before returning his attention to where he was tossing Abra's Pokéball up and down in his hand.

"Well," Rae explained, "we were so excited about new stuff that we used almost all of our cash. We only have 1,000 Poké left..."

"What?" Sam exclaimed, jumping slightly, causing Nova to have a brief moment of panic in which she secured her arms around Sam's neck in a vice grip. "Ah. Sorry Nova!"

"_What are we going to do?_" Rae wailed, clutching their meager funds tightly, "1,000 Poké barely covers four human meals! We're three kids and...eight Pokémon!"

"Well, at any rate there's always one way to make some cash," Sam said, slipping his hands into his pockets.

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><p><strong>WANTED: One or two kids. No adults! Please meet me at the abandoned well. Expect to be paid well for your<em> services<em>.**

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><p>"Okay, anyone else getting a really weird feeling from that dude?" Kurt inquired.<p>

"Yeah. Maybe the job board isn't a good idea seeing as that's the only posting..."

"Great, lets head to the Pokémon Center then," Nova told them. Of course, they didn't understand.

"Let try the bank. I have some emergency funds my mom set up for me in Viridian." Rae said. Nova just sighed and let Sam carry her in the direction of the bank.

"Hello, can I access my account? My name is Rachel Jenny Smith," Rae informed the banker. The banker typed in her name and frowned.

"I should have fifteen thousand in it," Rae persisted, looking at his face.

"...Yes, you do, it's just... that your account has been frozen as of two weeks ago..." The banker told her.

"What?"

"There's a message there too. Would you like me to read it?" The banker glanced up at Rae for consent, when Rae nodded, he cleared his voice and began. "'Rae,' it says, 'if you wanted to elope with some miscreant instead of returning to your dear mother, don't expect to use my money.'" The banker then looked at the two males standing behind Rae, looking slightly disgusted.

Rae was too flustered to bother to fix the confusion. "I told her that I missed my train! She's always jumping to conclusions!"

"It's alright, we'll figure something out at the Pokémon Center." Kurt assured her. Nova's ears twitched happily. _Finally, _she thought, _I'm exhausted._

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><p>As the trainers explained to Nurse Joy their situation, Nova sat beside the Pokémon on her team. Every time she tried to scoot closer to Gold, he would get up and move a further distance away. Frusterated and used to being in a state of, well, near friendship with him, Nova sighed and threw in the towel. He had a right to stay angry with her.<p>

Nova turned her attention to her trainer. Rae had just finished explaining her frozen account when he spoke up, looking directly into Rae's eyes. "Rae, I'm so sorry. If I hadn't run into you , you would've made the train and gotten back without your account being frozen." Sam said with sad sincerity.

Rae looked at him as if he was an idiot. "That's dumb. If you hadn't run into me, I'd be bored in my room and you'd probably be dead on the side of the road." She informed him matter-of-factly.

Sam nearly nodded before replaying her words in his head. "Wait, what? Are you suggesting that without you, I'd be hit by a car?" Sam protested.

"Yep." Rae nodded sagely. Nova snorted in laughter.

"Well what about Kurt?"

Rae thought for a second before responding. "He'd be dead too."

"Hey!"

Before their disagreement could escalate any further, Joy returned from where she was searching her desk drawers and placed a slip of paper in Sam's hand. "This is a free meal ticket for the diner across the street. It's called _Munchies. _Every time the owner brings his Pokémon here, he insists on repaying me with one. I don't wish to offend him, but I'm a vegan and cannot eat at his restaurant, you see. You three go ahead and I'll see what I can find for your Pokémon."

"Well, if you're sure..." Sam started uneasily.

"Thank you!" Kurt called, grabbing the ticket and zooming off.

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><p>Nurse Joy had found some extra kibble and fruit so the Pokémon were happily eating. Well, mostly.<p>

After swallowing the remaining chunks of honeydew from her bowl, Nova quietly approached Gold, who was stiffly ingesting his Pokéfood. From watching what Sam had done earlier, Nova now thought she knew what she had to do to earn Gold's forgiveness. It might be a little humiliating but she would do it.

"Gold! I'm so sorry for what I said to you, it-it wasn't my intention to upset you, the wrong words just came out of my mouth. I didn't mean it. Not at all." Nova was inwardly relieved when Gold's face seemed to soften slightly though it mostly seemed to be from surprise. "So just tell me when I say something wrong. I'm so scatter-brained..." Nova said, trailing off.

Gold's look hardened angrily again, but it was different somehow. He looked at the piece of food in his paw before gripping it tightly. "...It has nothing to do with you..."

Rejection stung her eyes as she backed away from her irate teammate.

It seemed she wasn't about to be forgiven.

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><p><strong>Wow! In this chapter I have 15 consecutive rows of one line paragraphs. I guess thats dialogue for you!<strong>

**Anyway please (please) review or sent in OCs! I have a view things planned that I cannot write without. Of course, I can make my own OCs, but it might take a while and delay the story a decent amount.**

**YAY. WROTE THIS CHAPTER IN ONE SITTING. imma go run or something to restore feeling to my legs.**

**Somehow, I feel like this chapter is higher quality... anyway I'm in the process of drawing the trainers and their teams. If you've seen my profile pic, you know that Pokémon drawings aren't...exactly my forté, but they should work as a reference...**

**THIS IS THE FIRST ravenwingdark dot deviantart dot com/art/Supernova-392050343**

**just replace the dots with .**


	22. Prelude To Reveal

**Well, let me just start off by saying thank you so much for all the reviews, especially to **whakamole **who reviewed several times. I have put Shi the pikachu in the story although it will be a while until he appears as, unfortunately, none of Sam's Pokémon stand a chance against him at the moment. Yes, all her sisters are Jenny.**

**And thank you so much, **Guest **for reviewing! I'm sure you are as awesome and amazing as this!**

**Also, school is starting again, (senior year of HS) so I'll have trouble updating but it'll try!**

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><p><em>Nova ran through the city panicked. She didn't know where Sam or Gold or anyone else was and all the humans were faceless. As soon as she stopped moving however, nearby humans tried to stop on her, forcing her to start to run again. <em>_Eventually though, she glimpsed something familiar and yellow. _

_"Gold!" She cried, "What's happening?" Slowly, the foot traffic between the two Pokémon slowed to a point where most humans walked around him but frighteningly close to her. Scared, she tucked her bushy tail underneath her. Gold sneered with his cold black eyes and turned away, his voice should've been dulled by the loud indistinguishable __murmur of the humans and their h__eavy footsteps, yet his words were unmuted._

_"This has nothing to do with you."_

_And the nightmare spilled away._

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><p>The next morning, when everyone else had woken up (Nova had been lying awake in bed for hours. She couldn't read the clock, but she had awoken before the sun), everyone filtered to the small cafeteria where a small Chansey was cooking omelets. After thanking Chansey for waking up early in the morning to cook for them, Sam was preparing to take the tray full of omelets from the Chansey's outstretched hands when something vaguely horrifying caught his attention.<p>

"Hey Chansey? Where'd your egg go? It was in your pouch last night..." Sam began.

"Chansey, chansey!" Chansey smiled sweetly, balancing the tray in one hand in order to point to the omelets.

As Sam's brain pieced the two things together, he stared at the nurse Pokémon, mouth ajar. After several long seconds, the Chansey grew impatient and pushed the tray closer to him and Sam, by instinct, took the tray. Bracing himself, he gave the Chansey a curt nod and carried the tray to his friends as if it was about to explode.

"This is delicious!" Rae smiled, fork piled high with another piece to egg. "Sam? Aren't you going to have some?"

"...I'll pass," Sam groaned lightly. _Just as I thought I was beginning to understand Pokémon, _he thought miserably to himself.

***SLIGHT TIME LAPSE***

Over breakfast, the three trainers planned their day out. It was soon decided that Kurt and Abra would return to the stalls and try their luck at buying travel supplies with their remaining 500 Poké, as Kurt's new bag was less than a fourth full. (It contained a very compact, a large first aid kit, a box of dishes and cooking supplies roughly the same size, Abra's Pokéball along with a spare, a couple of tools, the map he drew of Mount Moon, an extra change of clothes and a harmonica).

Rae and the P3's were going to find the Ponyta Express office to mail an angry letter to her mother explaining that she didn't elope and though she was journeying with two guys, neither was her lover. Sam decided to bring his team directly outside the city to train, so they too departed.

"Watch it! I said not so hard mouse-face!" Poison yelled, shaking off the dust in his fur from the harsh tackle he had taken.

Gold's eyes widened slightly in anger. "I'm not a mouse-face, if anyone its you! Besides, what good can ya do on a team if you don't even know how ta take a hit? You're not taking the training seriously!" Gold growled.

Nova shifted nervously, wishing she could jump in and tell them 'enough! You're _both _rodents!' but, somehow, she doubted it would help.

"I'm a _rabbit, _stupid!" The usually mild-tempered Nidoran's patience had been stretched too thin and now he was gnashing his teeth in anger.

"Shut up! From what I can see, you've never even battled!" Gold retorted.

"Bastard! I bet you ate your siblings or something. Bet your parents were real proud you!" Poison shot back, snorting in contempt.

Then Gold did something that Nova had never seen before, his ears lay back, flattened and turned and his eyes seethed with fury. Nova panicked, this was escalating far too quickly and her mind was working overtime to find a solution. Gold curled up into a ball, something she recognized as Rollout, an attack that got stronger every time it connected.

After spinning in a quick circle to gain speed, he started rolling straight at a surprised Poison. Nova, failing to find a logical solution to the problem, surrendered herself to instinct. In the time span of what had to be a split second or two, Nova felt herself entering the verbal fray physically. Jumping in front of Poison so she was facing a spinning Gold, long ears drawn back nervously.

Gold, sensing a shift, uncurled to face her. "Get out of my way, Rusty." He growled.

"Gold...I...I don't know what's bothering you, but Poison's tried being polite—can you guys just calm down?"

"Get out of my way, we need to settle this." Gold said, trying to move around her.

"No!...One more step and I'll fight you." Nova said, not believing what she was saying.

"You?" Gold mused in slight surprise before anger took over once again in an expression that completely unnerved her.

_Alright, Nova, you've got him talking. You can do this..._

"Yeah, me. Unless you have a really good reason...I'll fight against you. Our battle will not end as it has before either." Nova told him with faux-ferocity. Honestly, she hated opposing one of her best friends when he was obviously upset, but Poison has clearly not the cause of all his frustrations, simply a scapegoat and that was unfair.

"Nova, don't expect me to go easy on you." Gold warned her.

Nova swallowed. "I don't...Back off or fight me—any longer and I'll think you're stalling." Nova added, trying to hide the fear—no, it wasn't fear anymore, it was _anticipation. _Her body was running with adrenaline and she was becoming more and more sure that this was the only way.

"As you wish," Gold told her, all semblance of hesitation replaced by cold determination. He pulled back a fist as Nova crouched low into his battle stance.

"Stop it! What are you guys doing?" Sam yelled, quickly approaching him, Missile watching cautiously a distance away.

Sam knew his Pokémon well enough to know when they were practice battling and when they were aiming to draw blood. Finally reaching the three Pokémon, he took a deep breath and continued. "I really don't know _why_ you guys have been fighting but we're a team and if we want to win the Gym battle tomorrow, we have to act like one. I want you guys to work it out amongst yourselves _without fighting_. I'll meet you in front of the Gym at noon." Sam told them sharply. He looked at them somberly for a few additional seconds before turning around and walking away.

Poison didn't know what to think.

Gold stared at the retreating trainer in surprise, nervousness and disgust evident on his face.

Nova watched him disappear with compliance and solemn determination.

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><p><strong>Awkward ending? Perhaps. Necessary? Yes. A large part of what comes <strong>**next shouldn't be separated.**

**Please review!**

**#1: Who are your three favorite characters?**

**#2: Do you have any theories on why Gold is so upset?**

**THIS CHAPTER IS IN HONOR OF SUPERNOVA'S SECOND BIRTHDAY ON AUGUST 19TH.**


	23. Following The Yellow Brick Pokemon

**Sorry i ts taken forever to get back to writing another chapter! Those who sent in OC's, I've figured out where I'm going to put them so thats good, obviously!**

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><p>The three Pokemon stood, with varying levels of shock as they looked in the direction their master had left them in. For one Pokemon, it was a sliver of ice in his heart. Abandoned. Almost.<p>

The three Pokemon lapsed into silence for several moments. Finally, Poison spoke up, hurt palpable in his expression. "I'm going to clean myself off, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow."

He was gone before Nova could say anything to get him to stay but she resolved she wouldn't be separated from Gold. To her surprise, Gold was still there.

"I'm surprised, I would have thought that you'd have taken off by now." Nova said.

Gold's face looked slightly more impassive now. "Our trainer might not realize this, but this forest ain't exactly safe ta be walking around alone'n." Nova wanted to correct Gold's anger with Sam but her thoughts were too caught by Gold's sureness and words.

"What about Poison then?" Nova asked, glancing over to the direction he had left in, slightly worried that he'd be ambushed by an organized group of Ratatta.

Gold sneered. "He'll be fine, if he sees any Pokemon, 'e'll just hide or cower. If something was happening,_ you'd_ probably get yerself involved."

Nova decided that was as good a segway as any. "Why don't you like Poison?"

The Sandshrew was quiet, deciding how much he cared to tell her.

"It's not him, I guess…eh…its too easy fer him. Not fighting, but just getting along, bein' liked. But, that isn't it. I really hate this town…"

Nova was torn, it was definitely the most honest thing Gold had told her the last few days but it was clearly meant to cover something up. She didn't want to push farther though, as she was lucky to get this much conversation out of him.

"You_ are_ well-liked, Gold. The entire _team_ considers you a friend…you know, except for Poison but if you didn't act so hostile, I'm sure he'd change his mind."

Gold laughed humorlessly, "Having friends, that's new."

Nova's green eyes widened slightly. She was started to put pieces together. Now all she had to do is trick him into saying what she wanted to know. She looked around where they had started to walk for show.

"Wow, this place would probably be confusing even if I lived here," Nova said, inwardly hoping her tone had been conversational.

It was, apparently.

"No, not really, it's-" Gold cut himself off and stared at Nova, shocked that she had gotten the information she wanted out of him so flawlessly. Nova grinned so large she looked slightly possessed and sat down were she stood. Gold reluctantly stopped and turned around to look at the roan Eevee.

"You lived here. When? What happened?" She persisted. Gold grunted and shifted his weight slightly as if measuring his chances to get out of the situation. When he came out with nothing, he stared at his teammate, calculating whether or not he cared enough about her to tell her, or to simply refuse point-blank.

One way, he would show a level of weakness, but be able to get something deep-seeded off his chest, and another, he could remain safe—burdened—but safe, and loose a someone he was beginning to trust.

The former won out. "I…dislike Poison for his confidence. I was born ta a Sandshrew colony but wasn't really raised by 'em. They didn't like me 'cause I couldn't burrow, didn't think I'd amount to anything and they didn't care when I…left. Their burrow is about a half mile from 'ere." Gold told her, coal black eyes carefully judging her expression. He didn't want pity. There wasn't any. He could see solemness, mild surprise and maybe even empathy. Gold found himself pleasantly surprised. He had assumed that she would be the emotional type for some reason. He felt a little guilty for thinking that now.

"And you think about them often?" Nova asked him carefully, pulling back Gold's attention.

"…Yeah, I guess."

"Alright then, let's go find them!" Nova exclaimed, jumping up.

"What?"

"You know, show up, tell them they were wrong, challenge someone to a battle and finish with no regrets! You could both go on feeling better, I'm sure!" Gold frowned, it was tempting. A good challenge that could put his mind to rest and he could come out stronger for it. He didn't expect a competent suggestion coming from Nova.

"We'll need to go back to the Gym though." Gold reasoned, not sure which side he was on himself.

Nova looked at him incredulously, then looked up at the sun. "We have about 16 hours until we need to be there."

Gold snorted, surprised, "You're not serious? Did your mother drop ya as a pup?" He squinted at the sun, measuring something with his paw. "We 'ave 22 hours until noon tomorrow."

"Oh." Nova's ears flicked down slightly in embarrassment before returning to their original location. "All the more time! Are we gonna do this, Gold?"

Gold cracked his claws and changed directions slightly. "It's this way."

***NOVA***

I nearly ran into Gold's brick back armor when he abruptly stopped.

"What? Gold, why did you stop?" We had been walking for about half an hour in near silence.

"This…was supposed to be it." Gold pointed ahead of him to a large burrow entrance, compressed sandstone that had just started to begin crumbling into the hole. No one had been up keeping it. I circled around so I could inspect Gold's face. He was frustratedly rubbing one of his eyes. For lack of better words, he looked crestfallen yet angry.

_So he actually does want to confront them now._

I walked past him to the burrow entrance, mindful that getting too close too fast might cause the outer layer of loose pebbles and rocks to collapse. Eventually though, I did make it to the burrow's entrance. I could smell something, something not yet whisked away by the wind. If I could just get enough of the scent, I'd probably be able to pick it up in the root and plants on the forest level.

Pushing myself a little bit further onto the steep slope, I tentatively let my front legs slide in with a few gravelly chunks of sand.

_Musky? No, not really, more—_

"Rusty, I doubt you're any better suited than me fer underground liven'!"

"Hold on, I've almost…" I slowly placed one of my back paws on the slope I was trying to hold myself on, now with only one paw anchored on flat terrain. Stretching, my head reached past where the tunnel became shaded and dark.

"It smells—Sandshrew smell like…almost like an apple fallen off a branch on a humid, hot day. With sand and dirt stuck to it. Earthy but swe—"

"Alright, that's enough with the poetry, Rusty. Let's just head back if you're not gonna be helpful." I could tell he was turning around.

"Wait, hold on!" I called, turning around and pulling myself out as gracefully as I could. He turned around and I gave him a smirk-like grin. "Who said we couldn't find them?"

Gold was getting impatient now. "Well, as fun as this little adventure has been, having you nose through a tunnel is not my idea of—"

"I've got the scent." A few paces from the tunnel now, I sniffed the base of a stout fern.

"You…what?"

"I. Found. The. Scent. While you were enjoying the sound of your own voice, I was being productive and now I have their scent so let's go!"

He approached the shrub the was still standing by, not wanting to loose the scent for even a moment. Gold sniffed the plant experimentally, like he'd never tried picking up a scent before.

"It smells like plant," Gold said finally.

"Well, it is a plant, so that makes sense. But it also has another scent. You're as bad as the humans with picking up scents," Nova laughed.

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><p><strong>Keep looking for updates but remember that I'm ridiculous and that I'm actively writing two other stories.<strong>

**YAY please review my lovely friends!**


	24. Feather Beat

**Finally! New chapter! Worked really hard on this one! ^_^**

**whakamole = **thank you I'm honored! I only hope I can continue to keep your attention!

**FANDOM FANFIC REQUEST OF THE CHAPTER: Doctor Who**

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><p>To say I was proficient at tracking scents would be a gross overstatement, I quickly realized. Just because I could pick up a scent, didn't mean I could <em>follow<em> it.

After following the Sandshrew scent for five minutes, I found myself at an apple tree. That was when I realized that at least part of the fruity smell coming from the abandoned burrow must have been from a fruit larder. I also realized I was hungry, and Gold was too, judging from the way he looked up at the apples. I paced around the base of the tree looking for any fallen apples but only found one, too rotten to be edible. Even after stretching myself up against the tree trunk and lengthening myself so I was nearly Gold's height, I was still far too short. The lowest tree branch was at least six feet above my head. Even if I stood on Gold's head, I wouldn't have a hope of getting up, let alone getting down. Giving up, we back tracked about fifty feet so I could find the scent again and we were on our way.

Half an hour later, I raised my head and broke my concentration when a Ratatta ran past. I had to sift through forest-y scents to find it again. But it was hard. This is what I could smell: moisture (dew still on the stems of grass though it was 1 PM), something sour (probably some pee), a pungent odor (must have come from a plant or Pokemon), something mulchy (dirt), an dry earthy scent (Gold) and finally, the slightly sweet, earthiness.

By the time I had relocated the scent, I realized that several minutes had lapsed and hurried on to follow it.

An hour later, at 2 PM, I wasn't paying attention and circled around and nearly started following _Gold's_ scent.

Said Sandshrew gave me a quizzical look, noticing my dumb mistake. "Maybe we should take a break for a little while. We don't know how far away they are, we could still have hours to go."

I was surprised at his words but agreed readily, sifting through the grass with my nose in attempt to find something to eat. I was really missing lunch right about now. Gold's stomach growled at that moment.

Gold looked displeased. "I've been getting soft getting meals at the same time, I guess. A month back, I would've been able ta skip a meal or two without so much trouble."

"What do Sandshrew eat?" I asked, still pawing at bushing and grass for something edible.

"Nuts, vegetables, some types a roots, berries, fruit, a couple types of bark in a pinch, and different plants." Gold drawled, "How about Eevee?"

"I was never wild but I have a strong feeling-instinct- that it's safe for me to eat, well, berries, foods like beans and fruit, but also a couple types of vegetables and…well, meat."

Gold didn't seem very daunted by that. "Yeah, I figured you were a carnivore. I've only encountered a couple of 'em in the wild, but they are alike in some ways, I guess. Sharp teeth an' stuff."

The conversation dissipated while we both rested until the sun slightly dimmed.

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><p><strong>4 PM (20 hours remaining): 2 miles away from the city<strong>

"Let's get moving." Gold said, rolling backwards and uncurling himself so he was standing up.

I picked up the scent quickly and we set off again at a brisk pace, picking our way through the thinning forest.

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><p><strong>7 PM (17 hours remaining): 8 miles away from the city<strong>

I stopped. The trail was getting stronger and stronger. So there was an issue I wanted resolved right now. I turned to Gold.

"I'm hungry. Let's find food."

Gold seemed to like that idea and started off near an interesting plant. I stood, watching curiously to see what he would do. At the roots of an old tree, I started pulling up dirt in short awkward movements, as his claws were slightly too small to hold any substantial amount of dirt. He started collecting a pile of acorns and then started to strip off lengths of bark. He turned around with his collection and noticed me.

"That doesn't look too appetizing." I commented, giving it a curious sniff.

"Yeah well, it doesn't taste great, but I could go for the calories," he said chewing a strip of sticky-looking bark. "Go find your own food. I don't care what it is."

It took me a moment to understand what he was insinuating, so I nodded, and wandered away, looking for anything edible.

Strange, small berries clustered on trees looked delicious but their scent screamed 'dangerous' and I steered clear though hunger was gnawing at my stomach. I overturned leaves and rocks in effort to find something I might be able to stomach.

Eventually, I did find some strange large nuts with a tough outer shell. Quickly, I gathered up four and pulled a large leaf off a low-growing plant to tuck them in. Feeling vaguely accomplished, I carried my find gingerly back to where Gold was.

"So what did I find?" I asked setting my bundle down next to Gold, who had just finished one strip of bark. Evidently, I was hard to chew.

Gold picked up a nut to examine it. "Chestnut. You open it and eat what's inside. Can ya even eat these?"

I shrugged. "Something is telling me it isn't something an Eevee would normally eat, but I do know that its a food I can eat if I'm in a pinch."

I pushed two over to Gold, who accepted and gnawed on the outer shell until it cracked. Upon pulling it apart, I saw a brown nut and pulled it out of its casing.

It was pretty bad tasting and woody. But I felt my stomach's low whines subside after I finished it. I pondered giving my other chestnut to Gold as well, he seemed to be enjoying them after all, but I doubted I could keep going on an empty stomach so I reluctantly ate the second one as well.

Ten minutes later, we were walking again, my stomach slightly uncomfortable from the food that ideally shouldn't have been eaten but I was almost too excited by the ever-strengthening scent to pay much attention to it.

"Gold, I think we're here."

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><p>Gold and I had hardly taken five more pawsteps before my ears picked up rustling and squeaks. I opened my mouth to warn Gold but he had picked up the noise as well and had already started running towards it.<p>

The scene that was unfolding in front of us was something I wasn't expecting. A flock of three Pidgey and a Pidgeotto were all circling an large hole in the ground much like that of the abandoned Sandshrew burrow we had recently come across. One, of the Pidgey, who had its head stuck in the hole, backed out, dragging a small Sandshrew with it. Then I noticed that there were two other Sandshrew scurrying around on the bare plain, using panicky and feeble sprints to avoid the swooping Pokemon's claws.

For a moment, the blood running through my veins felt sluggish. These were young Sandshrew. Marginally younger than me but about my size. My instincts shouted that this wasn't a battle, this was a hunt. A Pokemon as small as myself would be their easiest prey, even if I was better equipped to fight back, I was lacking in the weight department as well as the armor one.

Gold charging at the four avians knocked me out of my revelation though. I couldn't just leave him to fend for himself against these Pokemon, so taking a deep breath, I charged, mindful of any greedy talons looking for a nice, furry meal.

Unfortunately, right as I was running toward one of the three young Sandshrew, the Pidgeotto swooped by and scooped it up in his talons. My breath hitched in horror but before I knew what I was doing I changed direction and leaped into the air, just grabbing onto the Pokemon who was slow to ascend with its burden. The Pidgeotto vocally protested at the additional weight and pumped its wings more powerfully to support the additional weight. To my terror, the brown bird started gaining altitude. My forelegs were in a death grip the Pidgeotto's skinny legs while my back paws were on the Sandshrew's back. The yellow Pokemon squirmed and I found myself selfishly hoping it wouldn't get out just yet because only our combined weight was keeping us close to the ground.

_Just great,_ I thought sourly as we reached five feet off the ground. I found myself morbidly deciding that I could probably survive a fall of anything less than fifteen feet. Not that it would be ideal.

A curious Pidgey coming a little too close to comfort brought my attention to the problem at hand again. Gripping tightly around Pidgeotto's leg, I buried my teeth deep directly behind its wing. Immediately, there was a tension, like a rope being pulled, between my jaw's grip. It tugged desperately as Pidgeotto squawked, but I held the muscle in place. The wing closest to me lost all power and we veered off, tumbling into the dirt, fifteen feet from where we had started.

The disoriented Sandshrew tore out of the Pidgeotto's loosened grip in a flash, scurrying over to the others. A Pidgey dove past me in effort to grab it, but as it flew by me, my jaws found their way around its neck and I used our combined weight and momentum to slam its head into the ground. It gave a out a cut off screech and wriggled feebly in my hold. Despite the circumstances, I felt bad for doing it but heck if it didn't look great.

Gold was battling the Pidgeotto now, who had apparently gotten its bearings back, one Pidgey lay sprawled unconscious by the side, one in my mouth and the last was heading straight towards me. _Crap._ I flinched, unable to react in time and the Pidgey and I collided.

…Or rather the Pidgey collided with the other Pidgey. The offending bird had rammed straight into the one in my mouth, causing them both damage. Deciding to take advantage of such a strange circumstance, I sprung onto the Pidgey and delivered a heavy tackle, effectively knocking it out.

Relieved, I took a step back to catch my breath, remembering several times before I could in no way, handle three enemies. I looked at Gold just in time to see him deliver a fast Rollout to the Pidgeotto, causing it to lay limp on the ground.

Finally, after several minutes and several awakening birds, taking to the air in panic, we were able to calm the young Ground-types.

At closer inspection, I noticed several differences between Gold and these young Sandshrew.

Gold's claws were proportionally much smaller but his limbs were slightly longer, as well as his body. I figured that Gold was probably more mobile than most Sandshrew because of it. And another thing, though several times, I had thought of Gold's eyes as coal black, they had a reflective baby blue to them, a strange non-sequtir of his personality. I had always thought it was a trait Sandshrew shared however the other Sandshrew's eyes where considerably darker. Almost entirely black. None of these were glaring differences however, in fact, if I hadn't been so familiar with Gold's appearance, I would have been hard-pressed to spot them.

Gold, as usual, didn't waste time with small talk. "Where are the other Sandshrew? The Sandslash?" I assumed Sandslash was an evolution. Huh. Didn't know Gold could evolve. When a moment passed without a response, he asked again, agitated, "Where's Markel? And Rune? Lucan?"

"They aren't here! They're out foraging! We've had problems with other Pokemon taking nearby resources so they gotta go farther and farther away!" One said under the pressure of Gold's piercing gaze. "Momma said they'd be home by Starshine!"

I turned to Gold, and asked softly, "Starshine?"

"About 8 PM, human time. When the stars brighten. They'll be back soon."

"Are we gonna wait for them? So you can battle?" I found myself reluctant for anymore fighting. I was hungry and tired but I didn't want him to miss his opportunity for closure.

"No," he spoke softly, "I've…I'm alright now." He looked up at the dim splatter of constellations beginning to appear with a soft smile on his face. I had never seen it before. His contentment was contagious.

_I'll make him smile like that more often._

Gold looked back at the three Sandshrew. "Go back into your burrow and when the patrol gets back tell them about the Pidgey and to never leave the burrow unprotected like that but don't mention me."

And we walked away.

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><p><strong>Alright, I want some feedback, feel free to answer all of these, but of course, you don't have to.<strong>

**1. What do I most need to improve on?**

**2. Where did this fight scene rate in comparison to others?**

**3. How do you feel about Pokemon food chains?**

**4. General thoughts?**


	25. Fifty Thousand City Lights

**Celebrating the 25th chapter and 50 thousand words!**

**I understand that at some points this story can be slow but the so-called filler parts are what started this story. I thought, how cool would it be using Pokémon for practical purposes like odd jobs? What job could each Pokémon do? I don't know exactly why that interests me but it does. I'm a weirdo.**

**One concern I've heard is the lack of a diverse group of Pokémon. I guess I agree with you at this point but there are**

1 psychic

4 normal (1 to be water (Azurill), 1 to be fairy (Cleffa))

1 poison

1 bug/flying

1 ground/fighting

No grass, fire or water yet but the wait won't be much longer!

**daniel**: thank you for reviewing! My next chapter should be up soon!

**I.C.2014**: Sorry I'm afraid there isn't a lot going on in this chapter either but conversely, the next chapter will be all action! I'm glad you liked the Clefairy battle and I'm putting extra effort into the next chapter to make sure that the battle is up to par! Thank you for being such a dedicated and helpful reviewer!

**whakamole**: Yes, after the next chapter there will be more of the minor Pokémon! They will continue to grow, but right now, they're really just young. Nova pulling off a Shadow Ball, yes I need to put that in. And don't worry about Gold knowing an attack, he'll get there soon. I hope that this chapter can live up to your expectations. Good news is the next chapter will be pretty eventful. PS: I'm really interested in your possible pokémon war fanfic so PM me when you write it! Or if you just want to bounce ideas of me, I'm pretty good at that.

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><p>Gold and I were nearly back to the city hours after the moon was above our heads. I was about to ask whether we should rest here or keep moving. Getting into the city from where we were wouldn't take more than twenty minutes. But then Gold stopped walking and sat down on a small cliff ledge with a beautiful view of the big, bright moon.<p>

"…Rusty…thanks fer…all that." He said, not looking at me. Surprised, I followed and sat next to him, looking at the city's lights. They were bright too. They were more yellow than the opal glow of the moon and more intense than the gentle light of the stars. The city lights washed a strange orange glow through the sky making the stars just a tiny bit harder to see. Humans and civilization were both amazing and terrifying. I looked towards Gold.

"Why did you leave?"

Gold frowned slightly and for a moment I was afraid he wouldn't say anything.

"Tell me about yourself. Come on, Gold!"

"How 'bout this? I tell you my little story but you gotta answer five questions and you can't lie and you can't say no."

I considered this. "Three."

"Alright, fine." Gold fiddled with a blade of grass in his paws as he slowly began to recount his life. "I was born to that Sandshrew colony ya saw back there. There were about thirty of us, give or take. I was kind of the odd one out though. You…probably noticed but I'm different than them. My claws for example," Gold opened and closed his claws, "are too short to dig properly and I can't breathe well covered in dirt so I'm really useless for burrowing. I'm just a little too long to roll into a perfect ball. Instead of learning to dig tunnels like the other Sandshrew, I spent a lot of time on the surface.

"No one really cared, so I kept to myself most'a the time." Gold tore up a paw full of grass and roots and dropped down to the ground below us. "So eventually-and it would've happened sooner or later-a Pidgeotto scooped me up. Easy prey I guess. I remember two Sandslash watching the Pidgeotto as it swooped down at me but they didn't do anything. I thought I was done for when the dumb bird started climbing higher in the air and deeper into the forest when the impossible happened… a Hitmonchan that was training in the that part of the woods that day heard me calling for help and in seconds he had scaled the tree. Fought off the Pokémon, despite the type disadvantage."

I was listening with rapt attention now.

"He offered to help me get back but I didn't want to go so he took me in. I learned his name-Zinc- and named myself Gold. I started training with him and learned how to fight."

"Where is Zinc now?"

"His trainer came back for him. He wasn't wild but apparently he had been separated from him for a year after some Pokémon poachers came after them. He and his trainer were headed to the Pokemon Boxing Tourney. When I found out I was so upset I refused to come. He left after he realized he couldn't convince me and I put some space between me and Cerulean City."

_Wow, there's so much I never knew about Gold… Zinc is why Gold wants to be a fighting-type. He seems like a good Pokémon. I hope we can meet him some day so I can thank him for saving my friend… Did he name himself Gold because Gold and Zinc are both metals? _

"Rusty." Gold said, getting my attention.

"Hm?"

"I'm gonna use my first question now. Why do you trust Sam so much?"

I hesitated before speaking. "There's a connection between a trainer and their Starter. It's almost like I know what he's feeling without looking at his face or hearing the tone of his voice. I can always trust that he'll do the best for us."

"Ha. I coulda' sworn he just ditched half his Pokémon in this forest yesterday," Gold pointed out, gesturing around us. I looked at him disbelievingly. He had spent all this time thinking that? _Under the circumstances,_ I amended, _it's not too hard to understand how he could have felt that way._

"He didn't leave us, Gold. It wasn't a punishment. He was offering us time to figure ourselves out. We've kind of been having a strained team lately. But most of all, he was trying to show us that he trusted us."

Gold sucked in a breath. "You think that's why?"

"I know it is. I'm sure. Listen, you can…talk to me about stuff if you…well I know you don't want me intruding on your personal business…" I trailed off awkwardly.

Gold looked at me strangely. "What?"

"When we were in the Pokémon Center…"

"What, when I said 'it has nothing to do with you?'" He asked. I nodded miserably.

"I wasn't talking about _me._ Listen 'ere, Rusty, _we're on the same team_ whether I like it or not. There isn't a lotta room for privacy. I meant that my getting upset had nothing to do with you. And that you shouldn't call yourself scatter-brained. I've heard it just makes scatter-brains stupider." Gold growled. Him and I looked at each other for several moments before he lay down and curled up several feet away.

Completely relieved, I smiled and wrapped my tail comfortably around my curled body.

**Morning**

"We can't have more than twenty minutes until we need to be at the Gym, let's go!" I exclaimed, shaking a sleeping Gold. He muttered something unintelligible. "We over-slept!" I said, trying again. This time with more luck.

Within moments, we were making our way down the hill towards the town.

"Rusty!" Gold singsonged. I flinched at his sadistic tone.

"W-what?" I asked reluctantly, wondering what he was up to. Whatever it was, it would be extra bad, knowing he would likely be compensating for his honesty from the day before.

"You still have to answer two questions. That was the deal."

"Oh, uh right. Go ahead." I felt guilty but I completely intended on being as vague as I needed too.

"Why are you so jumpy around people?" Gold asked. We were just entering the city now and I knew I couldn't try to deny it, I was already feeling uncomfortable with even a few people around me.

"I'm short. I'll get stepped on! At least you have some armor, if I get stepped on, you'd be peeling my off the sidewalk. They're all just so big…" I lied.

"Ha. Alright, I can see that. Last question. _Why do you act as if what you see is completely new to you?"_

I stared at him and he took it as me not understanding his question. " When we were entering that first town, you looked surprised by being in the city. I figured you hadn't been in a city before but last night, you were looking at the town lights like you'd never seen them. You're a curious Pokémon. You would have at least gotten close enough to a city to see the lights. And when-"

My pulse started to elevate and I knew I had to stop him before I panicked so I settled on a half truth. "You know that I was human-bred. I'm a Starter. Professors make a career out of breeding us. Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Torchic, Mudkip, Snivy, Oshawott, Treecko, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Fennekin, Piplup, Turtwig, Chimchar-"

"You don't know the names of common wild Pokémon but you can name all the Pokémon raised in Pokémon Breeders." Gold noticed. "And the lights-"

"Pallet didn't _have lights."_ I told him. That was a lie. I think. I'd never seen Pallet at night. Sam and I had left within the hour of becoming partners.

"Oh. Huh. Must'a been hard to do things at night," Gold blinked obliviously. I swallowed the guilty feeling at we kept walking towards the gym. The sun was almost perfectly overhead.

**Noon**

By the time Nova and Gold reached the entrance of Cerulean Gym, only a few minutes past noon, the Poison and the three trainers were waiting outside. When we reached them, Sam knelt down to pet Nova, apologizing despite him not having done anything wrong in Nova's mind. Gold stopped a few feet in front of Poison and nodded lightly. Poison looked at him with a slight surprise but then grinned and copied the gesture.

"Alright then everyone! Let's go win a Cascade Badge!" Sam broke into a run similar to what Nova had done at the Pewter City Gym. It was clear he was much more confident in himself than ever before.

Upon entering, a tall girl with short orange hair greeted them. "Are you Sam?" She asked, studying him.

"Yep, that's me, nice to meet you…" Sam said, extending a hand, which the girl, a little surprised, took.

"Misty. My sisters are getting ready for the water show later on tonight so I'm your opponent. Follow me to the arena." Misty led them through hallways walled with fish tanks full of Pokémon that Nova had never seen before. She was throughly intimidated but she didn't see anything she wasn't willing to fight for her team. Finally, they reached a large white room with a large pool. Three large round platforms rose up out of the water, providing at least some chance for non water type Pokémon. Nova sighed, she was in luck.

Misty, all ready on the other side of the arena, drew out a Pokéball and threw it at the water. Out came a large orange and white mottled fish with a white horn protruding from its head.

Sam, rather than be hindered by the strange Pokémon, grinned. "Come on out, Missile!"

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><p><strong>Please help me to improve myself by reviewing! (Comments, questions, concerns, OCs, ideas, constructive criticism, anything)<strong>


	26. Drizzles Flutters and Punches

**This chapter took longer than expected, I had some serious writer's block for the second half of the chapter, but finally, its complete, thank you for waiting and please enjoy!**

**Also if any of you watch Sherlock, I just wrote a one-shot about season 3 you might be interested in!**

daniel= Thanks for all of the reviews! Zinc will come to play into the story, though it will be later in the story line, thank you for taking interest in him! Thanks for all your funny and strange comments, I love them! :DD

Guest= Yes, I'm trying to write all my stories equally, but this one always seems to get written more often.

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><p>Missile looked relatively calm as he flitted over the pool.<p>

Misty was the antithesis. "AHH! Bug! Why do you have a _bug Pokémon_?" Misty whined, shaking uncontrollably. "Goldeen, use Water Gun!" Misty squealed, eyes closed, pointing the general direction of Missile.

The juxtaposition between the two was nearly unnerving; I had expected all Gym Leaders to be entirely placid and had never seen Missile without his anxious flutter.

'Goldeen!' A sharp, thin pulse of water rocketed in the air at Missile and I flinched in anticipation of a painful hit but Missile managed to maneuver so the spout just missed his delicate wings. Within moments, another water spout rocketed towards him and again, Missile barely avoided a damaging strike.

"Missile, fly up and use Harden!" Sam called, trying to think of a strategy. Missile complied and with a few flaps of his wings, he was floating nearly fifteen feet above the water. His yellow and black complexion briefly turned steely and I recognized this as an increase in defense against physical attacks. Goldeen's Water Gun would be unhindered.

Momentarily, I was distracted by Poison and Gold talking. Although they weren't looking at each other nor were they particularly enjoying their conversation, they seemed civil. _Thank Ho-oh. _

"Missile, watch out!" Sam warned, immediately, I flashed back up to Missile just in time to see him take a direct hit from Goldeen's Bubble, which was too wide to avoid. Distracted by the onslaught of bubbles, Missile quickly lost altitude.

_Why is Sam being so cautious? …Is it because he isn't confident in Missile's abilities?The bee Pokémon had been getting better but Missile never seemed particularly inclined to go into battle, despite the opponent or situation. Whatever the reason, he isn't going to win this if he isn't confident! …So here goes nothing…_

"Missile! I know you can do this! Don't you dare give up!" I cheered. Both Sam and Missile turned sharply to face me. Missile's alien-like eyes looked surprised and hesitant while Sam looked confused as he tried to comprehend my words with no success. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly fluent in Eeveese. My eyes didn't leave Missile's. I was challenging him. I had to push him from his comfort zone. Both he and Sam deserved this battle.

"Come on, bug," I thought I heard Gold say lightly behind me.

"Trust yourself ya big bee!" I encouraged, my tail wagging nearly imperceptibly. Missile didn't move except for a slight twitch of his antennae. A moment passed. A buzzing sound that I realized was coming from Missile slowly got louder until Sam could pick it up as well.

_Is he laughing? Or it might be some strange purr? _I didn't have more time to ponder the unusual action before Goldeen sprung from the water.

"Missile! Deflect it!" With incredible speed, Missile whipped his stinger-clad arm out to meet Goldeen's horn, shoving her forcefully back to the water. "Climb again!" Missile obeyed.

Goldeen emerged moments later, spraying a cluster of bubbles. "Missile, use Poison Flurry!" _Poison Flurry? _Missile positioned himself so that all three of his stingers were facing Goldeen and her oncoming bubble arsenal. Trios of Poison Stings shot out. Several bubbles burst between the two. Missile produced a dozen of them but none hit Goldeen.

_Sam's using an attack as a defense because Missile can't dodge all of them. And all those Poison Stings. I didn't know you could shoot more than one at at a time, Missile's incredible._

The Beedrill recovered from being nailed by half a dozen bubbles, looking a little worse for wear but prepared to continue. Goldeen disappeared under the water at Misty's command.

I looked towards Sam. His relatively uninvolved stance in battle was evidently over. His eyes flashed with excitement. He knew something no one else did. _Had he been so reserved because he was planning?_

"Missile! Use Poison Powder over the pool!" Missile started vibrating his wings in small but quick motions. In moments purple spores floated down to the water. Where they landed dyed the water and spread out like ink. Sam smiled manically but Misty looked confused but not threatened.

"Sam, you can't poison a Pokémon if the poison is that diluted." She frowned.

"Missile keep it coming! Misty, your Goldeen hasn't felt Missile's poison yet so you shouldn't underestimate it. Seems a little tactically unsound, Misty." Sam teased, enjoying himself.

_Underestimate? I've never seen Missile's Poison Stings even effect a foe before. What's his angle in lying? _Whatever it was, I knew if anyone could, Sam and Missile could pull this off.

Missile just finished dropping spores over the pool, leaving it a semi-transparent purple. Misty looked nervous, it was unlikely that the Poison could effect Goldeen. All the same, it wasn't a risk a wise trainer should take.

"Let's finish this up, Goldeen!" Misty told her Pokémon, "Horn Attack!"

"Ready," Sam shouted. This wasn't a question, Sam wanted Missile to prepare for his next command. I was willing to bet that it wouldn't be a standard attack. Missile was about to get game-changing instructions. Missile tensed slightly and Goldeen leapt out of water, rocketing at Missile.

"Throw her into the air!" Missile flitted to the side and Goldeen wasn't able to change her flight path, let wide open. Missile hoisted her up with the blunt sides of his stingers. "Fury Attack!"

'Dr..iillllll,' Missile hummed as he jabbed his arms at Goldeen, shoving her higher and higher. He struck one more powerful blow and she fell to the stone platform, unable to battle.

Misty, recalled Goldeen sadly as Gold, Poison, Rae and her Pokémon, Kurt and I shouted our congratulations. It was clear that Missile was on his last legs. His wings were bruised from taking hits and his eyes were droopy. He missed a wingbeat and dropped a few feet before catching himself.

"Missile, you did a great job!" Sam told him, returning him to his Pokéball before letting him out to join us. "You did amazing, thank you!" Sam told him, hugging Missile gently. Missile looked surprised but after a few seconds, he relaxed into it and lay a stinger across Sam's back, miming his hug awkwardly.

3RD POV

"I'm ready to keep going, Sam! How about you?" Misty called from across the pool. She had already released her next Pokémon, a yellow Pokémon shaped like a star with a gem at its center. Nova looked at Gold for information.

"I've never seen one before, but I would have ta guess it's a Starmie. Pretty creepy, huh? How does it eat?" Gold explained, sizing up the star Pokémon. Nova silently agreed.

Sam looked at the Pokémon. "Alright, now I'm going to use… Gold! Let's win this!" Gold brightened at the chance of battling and leaped onto the nearest platform. "We're gonna have to be careful that you don't fall in the water," Sam told Gold, who rolled his eyes as if it were going to be the easiest thing in the world.

_I wonder what would happen if he fell in. Can he swim? _Nova thought. She looked down at the water, noting the purple tinge had already faded.

Poison followed her gaze to the water. "He can't swim can he? He's weak against water."

"I don't think he can. I don't even know how to swim."

"Why is he acting so confident? That pompous Sandshrew doesn't make any sense…" Poison said, front teeth biting nervously at his lip.

"If worse comes to worse, I'll have to come in and beat two Pokémon and he'll never live it down. But I don't think he'll let that happen." Nova smiled slightly. Gold was standing in the center of the platform, using Defense Curl until he felt armored enough to battle the strange sea star Pokémon. Starmie began sending thin jets of water at him and he dodged the best he could with his limited space. It was getting harder for him the more water landed on the platform, the more he started slipping. Nova and Poison exchanged a quick, worried glance.

Gold continued to dodge, but got more and more frustrated every time he had to scurry to stay on the platform or had to find a paw hold on the flawless white surface. It didn't take long until he was positively spitting mad. He moved to the center of the platform and briefly curled into a ball, giving off a silver gleam. The Starmie launched out of the water in a Rapid Spin heading straight towards him. Nova flinched.

"Gold! Up to your left!" Sam warned. Only a foot away from hitting, Gold unraveled and spun to the side and jammed his fist directly into the center of Starmie's gem.

"That was a Rock Smash, enjoy the headache you'll get when you wake up, pal!" Gold laughed as he removed his fist to look at the flashing red light Starmie's gem was emitting. To his surprise however, the star Pokémon wasn't quite done. It grabbed both of Gold's arms and started to drag Gold into the water.

"Gold! Watch out!" Nova called nervously.

"Really?" Gold spat sarcastically. Starmie was now in the water and Gold was doing his best to stay on with his back legs. "Alright that's it!" Gold's foot kicked up past his captured arms, smashing down on the cracked gem.

'Sta!' The enemy Pokémon wailed as Gold pushed away from the Starmie using his newly freed arms.

"Use Water Gun!"

"Gold, use Swift!" Usually, Gold would be unhappy about using a special attack but he immediately followed Sam's command and from a short distance, he opened his mouth and shot a devastating flurry of bright white stars at the offending water-type. Energy rippled as the two attacks met but it only lasted a moment before the water completely dissipated and the stars slammed into Starmie sending it flying across the field, unconscious.

Nova couldn't stop her tail from wagging as Misty recalled her Starmie and released her last Pokémon. Azurill, who had been with Cleffa and Igglybuff before, squealed in excitement and gripping Nova's russet leg.

Nova smiled and told the small aquatic creature, "Looks like I may not even need to battle. That grumpy Sandshrew is doing really well for himself."

"I'm really glad he he's on our side. Goldy can be so scary!" Azurill giggled.

Misty released her next Pokémon. A Seel.

"Wow! That Pokémon is a unicorn too!" Azurill whispered in amazement.

Back on the battleground, Seel had begun to headbutt the platform. Gold was being knocked from side to side trying to stay standing up it was increasingly apparent that he was starting to get dizzy.

"Izzhe gonna win?" Azurill wondered.

"Just wait until he gets one of Gold's punches. It'll put him out," Nova reassured her, watching the battle intently.

Within a minute, Gold had an opening to hit Seel and sprung at him unsteadily. All three punches connected soundly. But they bounced off, leaving Gold completely shocked and gasping for breath.

"No way." Gold whispered. The attack had done him more damage. It was exactly like what had happened at the pastry shop when he was punching in the dough. "Alright, then. I just need to hit harder. Hard enough that it doesn't bounce back at me."

So Gold persisted until the Seel resurfaced from hitting and butting against the now-shaky platform. He rotated his shoulder in preparation, pulling back. The punch had to be perfect. And when the Seel rose out of the water, Gold ran toward him, letting his fist tense close to his body before swinging forward to release with full-power, perfectly connecting with the Seel's thick, white chest.

Gold wasn't sure what happened. He was on his side on the platform, soaked, completely out of energy. His punch had connected but it hadn't been enough. His full-power punch _wasn't sufficient_. His chest heaved in anger as he stared down the dopey Seel barking cheerfully.

Next thing he knew, he was released from his Pokéball with Sam, Missile, Poison and Nova around him.

"You…that… was hilarious!" Nova cackled, "_You_ _punched yourself in the face." _In that moment, Gold wanted to strangle Nova. He weakly swung a fist at her face but she jumped back quickly and straightened her face for his benefit though she was still smiling. Sam pulled out a potion and sprayed him quickly and instantly, his head felt clearer and his the throbbing in his head slowed.

"I will kill that Seel," Gold grumbled, massaging his forehead as he sat up.

"I think that's up to Nova now, pal." Poison corrected.

"As wonderfully violent as that is," Nova crinkled her nose, "how does just knocking him out sound?"

Gold grunted unhappily. Sam pet Nova's head.

"Be careful out there. You ready, girl?" Sam asked.

"Definitely," Nova responded. Within seconds, Nova was returned to her Pokéball and released on the platform closest to to them, now riddled with cracks from the damage caused by Misty's Pokémon.

"What do you think her chances are?" Poison asked, whiskers twitching.

Gold didn't even think about it. "One hundred percent."

Poison was puzzled. "How can you be sure? That Seel seems to be Misty's strongest Pokémon."

Gold smirked, "Because she knows she'll never hear the end of it if she doesn't."

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><p><strong>Next chapter, Nova's battle! :)<strong>

Brief Explanation: What Nova does-laughing at Gold-is exactly what he needs to hear. She wasn't phased or scared for Gold so he knows that it wasn't as awful as he thought. Her acting the way she did distracted him from the pain of losing, though she didn't do it entirely on purpose.

**QUESTION FOR MY AMAZING READERS**

***Which Pokémon do you think is the strongest?**

**Good news, the actual plot will start up in a few chapters now that at least five characters have had ****_some_**** character development (Nova, Gold, Sam, Poison and Missile). Of course, Rae, Kurt, Abra, Azurill (though she just had a little), Cleffa, Igglybuff and the characters yet to enter the story are far from complete.**


	27. Make a Splash

**Sorry for the huge delay. I'm in a Creative Writing class now, so I think my writing technique has improved, hopefully it will show in this chapter. I've also learned how to write poems, although I guess those don't really have a place in this story. Que lastima.**

**Also, I visited and committed to my college and I'm really excited!**

Gracie: Your comment about Gold and Nova being your BROTP made me unexplainably happy, thank you so much!

Dragonrider001: I'm so happy you read this a while ago and came back!

daniel: Lol a religious Haunter, that could be interesting...hm... It's a little late now but juxtaposition is 'two things placed near each other to create contrast'

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><p>"Sorry, this is as far as you'll go," Nova told him, grinning at the nearly unscathed Seel.<p>

"Nova! I'll let you take point on this one! I'll take over if you need me to!" Sam shouted from the sidelines. Nova nodded, she'd improvise on this one then. Cool.

Seel was circling the cracked round surface predatorily. She kept her eyes fixed intently on his horn, the only part of him above the water.

_Trying a physical attacks is suicide. Gold didn't stand a chance, _Nova realized grimly, _I might have to wait until the redhead makes a move._

"Dive down," Misty ordered. The chubby white seal Pokémon promptly dove far down in the pool. Nova's forehead furrowed in thought and she waited tensely for the Seel to resurface. She'd have to get creative to defeat her foe.

Nova dipped her tail into the water and wagged it. She didn't have to look over at her companions to know they were all shocked.

"What the heck, Rusty?" Gold called, a little peeved Nova wasn't taking the battle seriously.

It only took a few seconds after Nova laid her bait for Seel. The prospect of an easy win was too great for Seel to contain himself. Nova's heart beat in her throat as she watched, nearly paralyzed, a white blur rapidly approaching the surface.

"Seel, not yet!" Misty cried out, sensing something was off.

_Almost, _Nova's eyes slanted to focus on Seel more closely. _Now. _With any luck, the Tail Whip Nova performed underwater lowered Seel's defenses.

Now all she had to do is something to keep him on the water's surface. And avoid the horn. That seemed important too.

Nova yanked her sodden tail out of the water as fast as she could. She wheeled around, nailing the nearly defenseless Seel in the ribs with a Tackle as he jumped out of the water.

"See…" Seel groaned as he crashed back into the water. Nova wanted to stop him from recovering but she couldn't dive into the water after him so she had nothing left to do but wait for him to re-emerge. Which wouldn't take long if she had succeeded in getting him angry or at least interesting him in the battle. If he was very well-trained, however, her plan went to the Murkrow.

It only took a few moments until something happened. The platform under her paws shuddered. Seel was ramming the platform again.

"That's good, Seel, keep going!"

Seel surfaced across the platform from Nova, powerfully Head-butting it, causing another tremor in addition to the agitated waves splashing against the abused surface. Nova tried to run over to him but he retreated underwater again before she reached him.

He appeared again of the other side, pushing it hard enough to make Nova fall over onto her side.

"Rusty, come on! He's just reusing his old plan!"

Nova gritted her teeth.

_I've got one defense plan for that, but it might be risky. No choice now._

Nova waited, focusing the surface below her paws. Seel might be a water Pokémon but, unlike a Dewgong, he wasn't graceful. His thick body bumped against the platform almost every time he crossed under it. Feeling where the surface shifted or raised slightly should give her just enough time to react. Provided he didn't catch on to her.

Moments before Seel resurfaced, Nova tensed her hind legs and lowered her body. It was as if everything else moved in slow motion when she used her Quick Attack.

The two bodies collided, one fell back into the water. The other allowed the force of the collision to shove her lighter weight back the way she had run, letting her fall safely back onto the solid surface.

Seel shook off the hit and dove again and Nova re-focused, nailing the Pokémon the next time he came back up. Seel, increasingly frustrated dove faster and hit her platform harder. Nova responded by attacking faster and acclimating to sensing exactly where Seel would rise.

"She's figured out how to defeat him," Poison said incredulously.

"This should get wrapped up pretty quick now," Gold agreed.

"Great job, Nova!" Sam called, Azurill and the other P3's dancing at his feet.

Nova smiled, ready to finish the battle up.

"Now, Seel!" Misty called.

'Seeeel!' Seel exploded out of the water causing heavy water spray obscuring Nova's vision momentarily. Then he crashed down headfirst into the fractured surface, which gave him little resistance. Seel dove through it sending ruined chunks of stone flying in all directions. The small piece Nova was stranded on tilted, flipping over and sending her under the choppy waves.

"Nova!"

She had the sense to hold her breath when she entered the water. It had been cooled earlier but now it was positively chilly. Nova looked around her as she lazily sunk a few inches.

_Being immersed in water. What a strange sensation…I feel tingly…_

Nova snapped out of her reverie when her ears picked up a steady, low noise. She was able to pinpoint it quicker than she expected. Seel was approaching. At that moment, Nova realized she wanted to breathe. Really wanted to breathe. Her paws started working instinctively. Luckily, Seel wasn't in a hurry. After separately reminding each of her limbs to kick or pump, everything started coming together and her head broke the surface.

"Nova!" She wasn't sure who had called her but she didn't have time to think about it. She slowly made her way to the middle platform now that her original platform had been decimated. After a few strokes, Nova started feeling the lag of her furry mane and bushy tail and her head dipped back under. It took her a few seconds and a mouthful of water to breech the surface again.

"Now Seel," Misty ordered. Nova guessed she had trained her Seel to only attack land Pokémon after she knew they wouldn't drown in the water. A kind thought but not one that would make a difference if Nova couldn't reach the middle platform in time. Knowing Seel was rapidly closing the distance between them, she doubled her dog-paddle speed.

"Don't give up! You're doing great!"

"Keep going! You can win!"

"You got this, Rusty!"

"Almost there!"

"Go Nova!"

"Hurry!"

"Yes!"

Nova's extended paws touched the side of the platform and she lunged up onto it, crawling far enough on it so she wasn't in danger of being dragged back in. Nova coughed up a mouthful of water and shook her fur out before trying to steady her heavy breaths.

She had made it to the middle platform, weighing the chances just a little in her favor; the platform she was standing on now was considerably larger than the one that had just broken.

"Let's finish this!" Misty cheered. Seel obliged and rose to the surface.

"This is it!" Nova yelled, using Quick Attack to charge at the offending Pokemon. The crown of her skull connected with the white seal's sternum but Nova wasn't finished yet. She lashed out a paw, pinning a flipper on the concrete. She pulled out that familiar dusky power and charged her Shadow Ball.

"Rusty, better know what you're doing," Gold sighed.

_I know what I'm doing, this time, it'll work._

Nova released the dark charge, nailing Seel at point-blank. The charged blast caused him to fly backwards, flipper slipping from underneath Nova's paw, causing her to nearly fall back in the pool.

It only took a moment for Seel to resurface, unconscious.

"Yes!"

"We did it!"

"Great work!"

Nova breathed deeply, letting herself focus on the energy of the room rather than the spoken words. It was much more powerful. Before she reopened her eyes, she felt the tugging sensation of being pulled back into her Pokéball.

Then she was back among her friends. Gold held out a paw and she lifted a foreleg to meet his. Sam spun her around and pulled out a potion which took the sting off of the bruises she had collected during the match. It even seemed diminish the sensation of her watery lungs.

Misty smiled, now on Sam's side of the field. "Congratulations, your Pokémon are very resilient. Here, little cutie," Misty cooed, holding out a small treat out for Nova who was lying in Sam's arms, trying to recover. She stiffened instantly, and watched Misty coldly.

"Sorry, Nova's not good with people yet. I'm sure she likes you though, it's been a while since she's had the opportunity to battle like that." Sam told her, shifting Nova in order to shake hands with Misty.

Misty replaced the treat in her pocket and smiled again. "It's alright, I understand. Great battle, Sam." She shook his proffered hand but turned his hand around after and placed a water droplet badge into his hand with the other. "This is the Cascade Badge. Congratulations again. Please stay for the Water Show tonight!"

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><p>Nova sat in Sam's lap in order to see the large water tank better. Not like she wanted to see <em>too <em>much water though. She had only recently spit up the last gulp of water. She didn't like water. You couldn't run in it, breathe in it or lie in it. And it was impossible to defend yourself in it. But she did have to admit it sure did make for a good show. The idea of Pokémon performing was completely foreign to her but as she watched, she realized most movements could be used as attacks. For these Pokémon, swimming looked so natural. They used their tails and fins to propel themselves and they all seemed to have shiny skin similar to Seel. No fur to weigh them down…

"Rusty, check it out," Gold, who was sitting between Kurt and Sam, nudged Nova's leg, "they're actually doing it." Gold was right, along one of Misty's sisters and a small troop of Marill were Rae and Azurill, bobbing up and down with the rest of them.

_How adorable. I'm feeling…pride. It's almost been a month since I left the Lab but I've made such strong friendships. Even if Professor Oak… I know I'd never submit to that life again. I've come too far to ever go back. Not willingly…not for anyone._

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><p><strong>Please review!<strong>


	28. Learning To Be Normal

**I'm trying to update more often but I can't promise anything. In the last chapter, we saw the end of the Cerulean Arc. This chapter is primarily comic relief but don't think it's unneeded filler. In order to help the ever-closer plot along, our friends need to become more powerful.**

**In case you want to re-read or reference story arcs for some reason, here's a little table of contents:**

**Discovery and New World Arc (1-4)**

**Teammates Arc (5-10)**

**Boulder sub-arc (11-14)**

**Mount Moon Arc (15-19)**

**Gold's Past Arc (20-25)**

**Cerulean mini-arc (26-28)**

**Thanks to I.C. 2014 for reviewing the last chapter- s/he gave me the push I needed to get this chapter completed. I've also done a lot of character study practices so hopefully that will benefit the storyline. Enjoy this reasonably long chapter!**

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><p>We decided to leave Cerulean City the next morning.<p>

The weather was so nice, all three humans released their Pokémon and the lot of us walked down the forest path. I walked next to Gold and Poison near the back of the group.

"Is anyone else really freaked out by how Abra walks?" I asked, staring at the strange psychic creature moving stiffly in front of us. I had usually only seen Abra move short distances or teleport. Seeing the Pokémon so vertical was throwing me off.

"Creepy," Poison agreed.

"Pay attention, Rusty, if someone comes from straight ahead, it goes _front, jab, jab_, you're not gonna get a better teacher than…" Gold told me.

"Gold, I can't punch anything, I don't have _arms_." I sat up and waved my front legs in emphasis. Gold looked mildly surprised, then confused.

"…Right…"

"Yeah."

Sam, who had been animatedly talking to Rae further ahead, fell back a little and started to walk backwards to brief us. A welcome distraction from what would have been awkward tension. "We're heading to the next Gym. It's pretty far away so we'll be walking for most of the week."

Another Gym battle already? Something had Sam excited. Personally, I wasn't sure I wanted to go straight into another battle, but I trusted him to make the right call.

Several hours later, we came across a large building. Sam approached a wooden sign.

"It says Trainer School, do you guys want to check it out?"

Rae shrugged but I smelled food so I gave an enthusiastic yowl of approval.

"Alright, then. Let's go!"

The inside of the building was inviting and professional at the same time. Rae and Sam approached the desk and a tall woman looked up to greet them.

"Hello, welcome to the Pokémon Trainer School of Cerulean. We are a great way for both trainer and Pokémon to expand their skills. Would you like to sign up for classes? We have a one day, two day, or three day rate. Three day is the best package by far and food and lodging is included."

"Yeah, let's do it!" Sam said, then looked at Kurt and Rae. "Uh, do you guys want to?"

"Definitely," Rae nodded. Kurt shrugged.

Sam turned back to the the woman. "Three trainers and their Pokémon please!"

"Alright, it'll be this much," the lady slid a slip of paper towards Sam and he blanched. Rae looked over.

"That's all our money, Sam. Are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Think about how much we'll learn!"

"Alright, but you're taking the next job we take alone."

"Fine," Sam handed over the Poké and the lady smiled and gave him some paper. Sam walked over to a table to fill it out so I jumped onto his lap and onto a table. Gold lay on the floor.

"Look at all these classes I could take! Caring for Canine-types, Basic Pokémon Anatomy, Journeying 101, Match-ups…"

"Kanto History, Teamwork, Human/Pokémon Communication…" Rae smiled. "Yep, I'm taking those."

"I'm definitely taking Novice Cooking, Psychic Types, Journeying and the Fitness class. Sam take it with me!"

"Fine," Sam said, marking something on his sheet, "Only if you take About Evolution."

After Sam had filled out his schedule, he flipped to another section in the packet and helped me decide what I would do. I didn't know what to expect with the classes I was taking but Gold seemed very content with his schedule.

**Day 1: Introduction**

Me, Poison and Gold sat together in a large room filled with Pokémon. Missile was somewhere in the back trying not to be seen. Nothing to be done there.

A Pokémon Gold identified as Vileplume walked onto the stage.

"Greeting, Pokémon, for the next few days you will learn everything you need to know to become a stronger and more experienced Pokémon! A few Pidgey are delivering your schedule as I speak…"

I looked at Poison who looked positively exuberant to be here and then at Gold who looked as if the very idea that he might have something to learn was insulting. I didn't know how to act so I just settled for something in between.

**Day 1: Normal Type for Pokémon**

My teacher, a Persian, explained to us (me, a Ratatta, Pidgey and a Meowth—all Pokémon I had battled) that we weren't super effective against any type. Any hits against a rock or steel-type dealt half damage and we couldn't hit ghost-types at all. And fighting-type moves were twice as effective on us. I took that time to voice my opinion that we suck.

Unfortunately, the class didn't seem to appreciate that so I kept my mouth quiet for the rest of the class. Apparently, Normal-types have high HP and Attack, so I guess that was sort of a silver lining.

**Day 1: Pokémon/Human Communication 1**

I was a little upset when I found out Sam wasn't in my class because I was starting to miss him. On the other hand, I was happy to not have to see the other humans. Not Kurt and Rae though, I could tolerate their presence.

A duck-like blue Pokémon I had never seen before explained to us the importance of human gestures and showed us the human alphabet. He even spelled out our names for us on the board. I don't know how he wrote so well with his webbed hands.

I recognized almost all the symbols he wrote down from other places. I was waiting for him to print more on the board when the Pokémon did something surprising—he said a phrase in Human. It sounded a little croaky but he had definitely said 'That's right, I can speak Human.' Show-off.

Then he encouraged us all to practice speaking a few words as well. I picked 'Sam'. Our teacher said I was being too ambitious and should start with something that sounds like 'eevee' so I told him something in Eeveese that sounds like 'duck poo' and he left me alone for the rest of the lesson.

Unfortunately, I got nowhere with Human-speak and my dumb teacher refused to help me anymore.

**Day 1: Lunch**

A lady passing out the food looked at me in line and looked through a line of smaller paper bags before pulling one out for me. I backed away, nervous, so she set it down and continued to serve the others. I ran to Sam, sitting by a tree in the grassy courtyard and pawed open the paper bag that had the word 'EEVEE' printed onto it. I was pleasantly surprised that I could see the only word I understood written so quickly. Inside the bag was a Pecha berry and small Pokéchow that tasted just a little bit sweet. Next to me, Gold was eating rice from his bag and talking about his Attack Combos and Combat classes. Poison was eating truffles and mushrooms, which looked nasty but he seemed to enjoy.

**Day 1: Boot Camp 1A (Quadruped)**

I was glad to get some exercise after all the learning I had been subjected to but I turned out to be a little over my head. In my class were a Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Meowth (the same one from earlier), a Slowpoke and Poison. The teacher, a Nidorina, had us running across a balance beam, jumping from platforms and racing through obstacle courses. I came out behind Pikachu and Meowth, and one unfortunate time, after Bulbasaur. Poison did his best not to lose to a surprisingly quick Slowpoke. Even though it was difficult, I left feeling accomplished and maybe just a little bit dizzy.

**Day 2: Move Sets for Pokémon**

We were taught by a Lickitung. I couldn't understand what he was saying and I fell asleep.

**Day 2: Evasion 101**

Our teacher was crazy. He shot attacks at us and expected us to dodge. Luckily, I caught on pretty quick. After getting shot with a Water Gun a few times, I started tucking and rolling out of the way if I couldn't move fast damage rolling did was a lot less that the damage done by the actual attack.

**Day 2: Intro to Type Analysis**

After the hell that was Evasion, it was nice to sit down and listen to 'fire is stronger than grass, grass is stronger than water, water is stronger than fire.' I actually might have learned something from that class.

**Day 2: Pokemon/Human Communication 1**

Still no luck on saying 'Sam' but I know what all the vowels look like now.

**Day 2: Lunch**

Gold talked about his Martial Arts class, he seems to have connected with his teacher. Sam and Kurt are complaining to Rae about their Fitness teacher and enthusing about the upcoming Journeying class. I'm really started to like the Pokéchow. I think it's specialized to Pokémon type. I feel more energetic.

**Day 2: Bootcamp 1A (Quadruped)**

We jumped in and out of tires for half an hour. I like to think I lost the subsequent races because I was tired from Evasion 101. Poison seems to be improving. That's great unless he starts out-racing me.

**Day 3: Attack Basics**

We covered all my usual arsenal (Tackle, Quick Attack) but then I saw some other moves like Bite. I think I'll try that one in a fight, it worked well against the attack dummies. I also tried Headbutt but for some reason I can't seem to pick that one up. Our teacher assured me that it was expected that I might not be able to because it isn't a move an Eevee can naturally learn. I like Tackle better anyway.

**Day 3: Pokémon/Human Communications 1**

We learned more letters. I can recognize vowels and the letters 'B' 'D' 'F' 'G' 'H' 'J' and 'K'. I can also recognize the words 'job,' 'sun' and 'Sam'. So if someone is writing about Sam taking a job in nice weather, I guess I'll know.

**Day 3: Lunch**

I realized how much I'll miss the Pokéchow. I've noticed an increase in my endurance and I asked a teacher. Apparently, most of the extra energy is temporary—if it were my regular diet, it would stay like that—but eating it does have a smaller long-term effect and helps you grow stronger. The downside is, it's really expensive. I enjoyed lunch with my team and shared stories with Gold (who had sparred with his Martial Arts instructor) and Poison (who had learned how to improve the quality of his poison).

**Day 3: Intro to Tracking**

We went out to a big field and our teacher hid ripened fruit throughout the area. We were let loose (five other Pokémon and I), nose to the ground, trying to pick up a scent. I replicated what I had learned tracking Gold's colony and caught onto a scent quickly. A nearby Ratatta who noticed I had caught a scent tried to follow me, but a quick growl changed his mind. After following the scent nearly a dozen yards, I shoved a rock out of the way revealing a banana. Within the time limit, I found two other fruits, putting me in second place. Not bad.

**Day 3: Boot Camp 1A (Quadruped)**

Today was a bit of a final exam; one long obstacle course involving jumping, running, balancing, and a little bit of climbing. I got second place again.

And like that the course was over. We would stay the night and leave in the morning. Even though the Pokémon School was work and learning, it felt more like a vacation than anything I'd ever experienced.

**Day 3: Night**

I was learning dozing off to sleep as Sam packed up his last few things. I was almost too out of it to hear him.

"Nova?" He breathed.

"Vee-ee?" Yep, It'd be really nice if I could just speak his name in Human instead.

"Do you want to go outside with me for a little while?"

"Ee." We walked a little while outside and settled on the grass beneath the stars. They looked beautiful just as they had in Cerulean City. And I saw my first full moon. It was breath-taking. Round, like eyes and pale like marble. Was it made of marble?

"Nova, I kind of miss my family. I don't know why…it's weird. Do you miss yours?"

I tensed a little at his question, but did not answer. He mistook my silence for thoughtfulness.

"My mom and my sister are alone in the house. My sister, she's always been sick, so my mom and I took care of her. It's weird not to be doing that anymore. I…I feel like a bad son, I guess. I left just like my two older brothers did," Sam hugged his knees to his chest a little, "like my father did."

My eyes softened and I squeezed by his arm into his folded lap, causing his knees to lower. I nuzzled his chin, wishing I could speak human words.

"Keh. E nee-e eevee, Vee-ee," _Don't worry. I promise to protect you, Sam. _Those were the only words I could offer him.

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><p>The next morning, I woke up to a sweet scent similar to the pastries we had helped make weeks ago.<p>

"Happy anniversary, Nova!" Sam cheered.

I raised my head groggily. "What?"

Sam picked me up and put me in his lap at the table. Interested, I sat up, forelegs on the table. Inside a box were a dozen pastries.

"It's April 1st. A month ago today, we started our journey together! And you are turning seven months old today too!" Sam told me.

Gold spat out the juice he was sipping in surprise. "You're only _seven months_?"

I titled my head in confusion. "How old are you?"

"A year and a half. Jeez, Rusty, you're still a pup."

My face felt hot. "I'm not a pup! I know a lot of things and I've been exploring for a month!"

Gold shook his head, "Pup."

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><p><strong>Please review! It would help my writing and my morale (directly correlated to update speed) if you answer a <strong>**couple of these questions!**

**1. Do you want to see the team go to another Pokémon School further in the story?**

**2. Which character do you think is the most under-developed?**

**3. What's you're favorite thing about Nova?**


	29. Trust and Trains

**Wow! Two updates in a day- I must really not want to do my school work.**

**This story has almost reached the 5,000 views milestone and hopefully this chapter will bring me to 50 reviews. Also, we're ****officially 60,000 words with the addition of the last chapter...and this story has gotten 106 views today :D**

Shinymudkip25= Thanks for the encouragement. It's always nice to hear from new reviewers! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others or, I dunno more. That's my goal, at least!

I.C. 2014= I honestly don't know how you do it. Not only do you comment very quickly, you provide an honest opinion that I've learned to count on to adjust my story. And you answer questions I write at the bottom. You are amazing, my friend. Don't worry, I don't intend to use the Pokémon School for a long while, so it won't used unless I need it to help speed the plot along. I was really happy to see you mention Abra as an underdeveloped character because this chapter does help with that. Part of the reason this chapter is following only a few hours behind the last one is because I agree, Abra needs some development. I'm also glad you think Nova's progress is natural :D

**This chapter's about 2500 words of literary delight (in my incredibly biased opinion) so enjoy!**

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><p>"We're…actually going in…there?" I asked quietly, staring up at the bustling train station.<p>

"If you want to walk to Vermillion, feel free. Personally, I'd rather nap on a train than walk for days," Poison responded, unconcerned by the pedestrian traffic throughout the building.

Within a week, our team's Nidoran had changed from an unexperienced cave-dweller to someone who was well-adapted to people. Even his brown fur was starting to change into its natural pink color thanks to the sunlight and exercise he got.

I wish I could adapt to people. I decided maybe I'd try. I jumped into Sam's arms and let him carry me through the station.

Not a minute into our walk through the building, Poison, Gold and Missile were recalled into their Pokéballs for trying to steal food, trying to pick a fight with a crying baby and flitting around spastically in front of televisions, respectively.

Azurill was perched on Rae's shoulder, tail across her neck like a scarf.

"Got the tickets," Kurt said, handing one to Sam and Rae. I grumbled as Sam adjusted me in his arms in order to take the ticket.

When we reached the nearly empty platform, I jumped out of his arms and walked. We boarded the train and found our compartment, a nice, two-bench, small room with a window sliding door. I was rather excited about my first experience in a vehicle until it pulled away from the station. Sam who was sitting next to me leaned down and smiled.

"Motion sick?" He asked, grinning.

Rae looked up from where she was playing with Azurill and gave a little frown, "Don't patronize her, Sam. She'll get sick on you."

I growled weakly in agreement and stretched out on the cool wood to try to take a nap. Just as I was about to doze off, Sam leaned over me.

"Hey, Nova, we're going to the food car to get something to eat and make plans for Vermillion. You have the compartment to yourself so get some rest, alright?" He rubbed his thumb soothingly behind my ear like I love.

"Alright," I yawned. I was probably asleep before his footsteps faded from my ears.

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><p>I was dreaming about dancing Chansey when the sound of the sliding door being open woke me up. I didn't know why Sam had to be that loud—<p>

But it wasn't Sam. It wasn't Kurt or even Rae. In fact, I had never met this human before in my life. But I knew something about human expressions.

The man before me had his dry lips contorted into a strange smirk and he wore black clothes with a large red letter 'R' on it. I tried to think of words that I knew started with the letter 'R' but I drew a blank.

I raised my head from its lounging position as if I was disinterested but my muscles were taught. The man's twisted smile widened when he heard the sound of other doors being pulled open and the vocal protests of trainers inside other compartments.

_Is this an attack?_

"Here, little Eevee, here," he crooned.

"What kind of idiot would fall for that?" I asked, eyeing the sturdy rope he was preparing in his other hand. The man came closer, eliminating my escape route. Across the hall, I heard the sound of battle but it seemed that the 'R' humans were winning. Smirky tried to lower the rope around my neck. I growled.

"You don't want to do that," I told him. He kept moving so I sprung up and clamped my jaws onto his upper arm.

"Yehhh!" He shouted, using the heel of his hand to bash my head. After two solid connections with my skull, black dots started to float around my vision so I jumped off him and put some distance between us.

I lashed my tail and bore my teeth. Judging by the taste of copper in my mouth, I decided my message couldn't have been clearer.

Unfortunately, he just didn't seem to get it.

"Damn pest, you'll pay for that!" He fished a Pokéball from his belt and threw it onto the ground.

"Bulbasaurrr!" The plant-animal Pokémon growled.

"Eevee," I retorted, "oh, sorry, I thought we were just saying our names." I was in a bad mood from having my nap interrupted and I still hadn't gotten used to riding in a train.

Bulbasaur whipped a vine at me experimentally, to see how I'd react. I took advantage of that and gripped it between my teeth. Bulbasaur's eyes widened in pain but then turned into a grin. Before I had the chance to figure out why he was so happy, his vine wrapped around my neck, effectively limiting my movement.

"Razor Leaf," the man told his Pokémon. I tried to dodge but wasn't able to. Four sharp leaves collided into me, drawing blood.

_Hopefully, my fur will help the blood clot, _ I thought darkly. I started pulling away from Bulbasaur before I realized there might be another way out. Bulbasaur's vine was acting like a leash, a humiliating comparison, but effective all the same. Leashes were meant to prevent someone from getting further away. It did nothing to stop someone from getting _closer._

Offensive, then. I charged at the unsuspecting bulb Pokémon with a fast Tackle, bowling the Pokémon over onto its back. Its vine retracted as it lay there dazed. It didn't get back up so Smirky recalled him angrily.

Not wanting to let the man get another shot at me, I jumped onto the bench and jumped into his chest with another Tackle. The impact jarred my spine and made my vision fuzzy for a moment but the sound of the collision was enough to ensure that he was down for the count. I managed to stay standing while he hit the floor. I walked out the door, intentionally stepping on his face.

When I was looking for another 'R' member, I ran into a Machop and a similarly dressed woman carrying a dozen Pokéballs. Not being an idiot, I dropped back into my battle stance. I was hoping for a breather before I took someone else on but there wasn't a chance I could sit there and let the train-jackers get away.

I charged up a Shadow Ball and fired it at the Machop. My attack glanced his side, leaving a red scorch mark on his blue skin.

Machop countered, sweeping his leg under my feet, causing me to face-plant into the ground. I stood back up, legs aching only a little less than my pride.

_Fighting moves are strong against Normal-types, _I remembered hearing at the Trainer School. Well, crap.

I was going to have to resort of evasive maneuvers. I mentally thanked the designers of the train for including wide hallways. As Machop charged at me with a punch, I dodged to the side, mindful of where its trainer was. I couldn't be sure she wouldn't try to attack me.

As I dodged another strike, I winced at what would surely be bruises on my legs. On the bright side, the pain in my legs was effectively distracting me from both the cuts Bulbasaur gave me and the headache its trainer had given me.

I wouldn't be able to get close to Machop long enough to bite him but I could try a Quick Attack. Didn't work too well—I nearly bounced off and Machop barely looked damaged at all. I quickly put distance back between us.

Experimentally, I shot out a move I had been working on at the Trainer School. I fired a few star-like projectiles out of my mouth and they collided with Machop. Although it was a direct hit, he didn't even flinch. The maddened blue Pokémon came in again and I couldn't dodge fast enough. I saw his fist open into a flattened hand. He swung down on my cringing form, sending me flying into the door of my compartment.

I pulled myself up quickly and almost fell back down when a spasm of pain pulsed through my back. His hit had been incredibly powerful and now I was having trouble standing. I tried to use Tackle again but this time, gravity seemed to double. I lay there in the bed of splintered wood, stunned by my weakness as Machop raised his fist…

"Whoa, Nova!"

_Sam? _I swiveled my head, as did Machop and his trainer. Standing in the ruined corridor were Kurt and Abra. Kurt dropped his take-out bag and approached me. Abra stepped forward to face Machop.

I was surprised to see the usually mellow, cowardly Abra looked ready for battle. Was he upset I was hurt? Huh.

Machop swung a fist at Abra, frustrated that he had to switch targets so close to winning but Abra teleported out of the way and used Confusion.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked, crouching down to check my injuries. Usually I would have been more wary of him but either the floaty sensation in my head or the dire situation made me to want to trust him.

"Ee," I said but my voice didn't sound very strong.

"Hold on," Kurt said, starting to scoop me up. Then he remembered who he was dealing with and almost pulled back. His face changed into a victorious smile when he noticed me watching him but not growling or trying to move away. "You'll be alright," he said, picking me up more gently than I'd ever seen him. He didn't seem to want to screw up the frail trust I was placing in him. I was grateful for that. He patted my head and returned his attention to the battle.

Machop was gripping his head in pain with one hand and blindly swinging at Abra with the other. Abra was taking measured, silent steps backwards, escaping the range of every punch swung at him. Finally, when the superpower Pokémon was sweating and his punches sloppy and slow, Abra saw his opening and palmed him in the nose.

It was clear that it wasn't a powerful shot. It barely qualified as an attack at all, but the exhausted Machop crumpled to the ground all the same.

The angry 'R' man removed another Pokéball from his belt. Another man dressed in the same outfit seemed to be done taking Pokémon from people joined him.

Abra was now staring down a Spearow and a Polywhirl. My throbbing headache had diminished by now and I had regained some of my energy. I squirmed a little bit in Kurt's arms and he set me back onto the ground.

Abra had fared exceptionally well for a Pokémon not trained in combat, even if he had had the type advantage. But he wouldn't be able to take two Pokémon at once. But we had another problem; I was very sure that one solid hit could knock me out. We needed back-up. Kurt could go but then Abra wouldn't know what to do. Abra could go, but then Kurt wouldn't be able to help. I was hard for me to run from a fight, but I barked at Kurt and Abra and ran as fast as I could towards the dining car. I just hoped they'd be able to hold them off long enough so I could bring the others.

Maybe I had underestimated the damage I had taken battling. The pain in my back was starting to spread to my ribs, constricting my breathing. Running across the floor kept jarring my legs. I tried to focus on the diminishing number on the cars as I ran towards the front.

Finally, I got to the dining car, where everyone was sitting, pouring over plans.

"Hurry! Kurt and Abra are holding off train-jackers! They need back-up!" I barked, breathing heavily. Sam and Rae may not have understood the exact words I had said but my wild gesturing towards the direction I had come and my unruly appearance was enough for Sam. He call out Missile and start running towards the car. Azurill took a flying leap from Rae's shoulder to Missile's back and they flew down the hallway.

I took a laborious deep breath and started to follow at an uneven jog. Gold, who was running on four legs matched my pace.

"You alright?" He looked at me. I looked at me too. My furry collar had thin streaks of blood, my fur was dusty. I imagined I looked pretty worn out.

"Still not used to being on a moving surface. You need to go help Abra," I insisted, exhausted.

Gold narrowed his eyes for a moment. "Right," he said and ran ahead.

"You're not alright," Poison said, jogging next to me now.

"W-what..is this…pester…Nova day?" I panted.

"Maybe you should slow down."

"Don't wait for me, go ahead." Did. I. Have. To. Spell. It. Out?

"No, I don't want to leave you alone!" The Nidoran protested, twitching his whiskers.

I grimaced, too anxious and exhausted to care now. "Are you actually worried about me or are you just trying to avoid battling?"

Poison's eyes widened, hurt, but it worked and he ran ahead as well. I slowed to a walk for the last two train-car-lengths.

By the time I arrived, the offending Spearow and Polywhirl were looking worse-for-wear. Sam ran up to me as soon as he saw me and scooped me up. I slowly relaxed in his arms.

I remember a few parts of the battle. I know that when Spearow was flitting around the room dodging attacks, it was little Igglybuff that slugged the sucker in the face, dropping him like dead meat. I also know Missile got Polywhirl right through the center with his needle-like arm, like some sick game of target practice. I felt the change of hands and watched as one of the train-jackers tried to call back-up on his communicator got dropped by a sound punch in the temple by Sam. Then he said, 'Learned that at Trainer's School, ass.'

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><p>I woke up in the middle of the night. I felt better—my headache was barely perceptible. Though my back and legs hurt, they didn't seem like they would hinder my walking anymore. Likely, Sam had used a Potion on me. I later found out that the train had made a short stop for the authorities to gather the four train-jackers (one defeated by me, one defeated by Abra and Igglybuff, one defeated by Missile and one defeated by a very angry Pikachu in the next train car).<p>

I thought about how Kurt had come through for me. I don't know what I had expected would happen, I knew he would never hurt me—but I didn't _know._ But now I felt I could trust him. And Rae too. I had spent the last month living afraid in the shadow of my past but that was over now and the two humans had earned by trust. Laying on Sam's gently rising chest, I knew what I should do…

I carefully climbed down from my trainer, jumped on to the other bench and settled down in the nook of Kurt's arm next to Rae's head.

It felt good to trust.

But I wasn't sure I could sleep like this.

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><p><strong>So we get a little of Nova coming out of her shell around Kurt and Rae. Finally! I've been pressuring her to warm up to them for several chapters now.<strong>

**Also, Abra gets to be useful. Now that he is, we should be seeing more of him.**

**Please review! I'd love to hear your feedback!**

**1. Were the fights written in an exciting and clear way or were they strained and hard to picture?**

**2. Seems like Nova's toughening up now. That isn't a question, I kind of just felt like doing that. Sorry.**


	30. Pokemon Mission Corp!

**Hey everybody! Good news! This story now has over 5000 views and 50 reviews. Also, I graduated high school! I should be updating more regularly now that it's summer! Also thank you to my reviewer, **GamerGirl54321 **for giving me my 50th review!**

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><p>Sam had some potions in his bag. This time, when he used one on me, it wasn't enough so he had to use another. Rae assured him that since I was getting stronger, I'd start needing more powerful stuff. That made both of us feel better.<p>

Once we exited the train, we rested in an overnight room at the station. We had to be ready for the last leg of the journey to Vermilion and a full day later, we were. I was feeling about ninety percent after rest, good meals and those two potions.

So we set off.

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><p>I nearly walked into a Ratatta who was nosing around for food. It didn't look too powerful so I was ready to knock it out when Sam called me back.<p>

"Nova, hold on, I want to give Poison a little battle experience before Vermilion! Let's go, Poison!"

"Nido!" Poison emerged from his Pokéball.

"Poison, uh, use Double Kick!"

Poison, nervous, started to approach the Ratatta backwards to hit him with his back legs.

Gold groaned. "Not like that, moron, he'll know exactly what yer up to!"

"Rrr!" The Ratatta charged with a Quick Attack and caused Poison to involuntarily somersault back. The Nidoran regained his footing and shook of the hit.

Ratatta came in for the second Quick Attack but the rodent's face became the landing pad for two direct kicks.

"Should be super-effective…" I heard Kurt say, hoping the Nidoran had been successful. The Ratatta stumbled back and dropped unconscious to the floor.

"Yes!" I cheered as Sam ran over to congratulate him. I tried not to feel guilty about what I had told him in the train.

Next, we encountered a Pidgey. Since Poison was tired from his match, Sam called out Missile, who seemed grateful to stretch out his wings. The battle remained dangerously close until the end. Finally, Missile ended it with a well-placed Fury Attack. Sam recalled the worn-out bee Pokémon.

Not a few minutes later, another Pidgey appeared. I stepped toward it and immediately, it started using Gust.

"Nova, use Quick Attack!" I charged at it as fast as I could. When I stepped away, I looked at the downed Pidgey in shock. The pidgey was knocked out in one move.

"Nice, Rusty, your first one-hit KO," Gold nodded, impressed.

"…KO?"

"You don't know what a KO is? Jeez, Rusty, didja live under a rock?" Gold laughed. "It means Knock Out. You knocked him out in one hit."

I grinned. "Alright then." I was happy that he was impressed and even happier that I had gotten my first one-hit KO.

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><p>It only took ten minutes in the Pokémon-packed path that was Route Six to encounter another Pokémon. It was an angry Bellsprout.<p>

"A grass-type! Rae, what's strong against Grass?"

"Uh, fire and ice, poison, and flying and bug."

"So Missile has a double-type advantage, huh?" Sam held Missile's Pokéball thoughtfully.

"Yeah but I don't think he's in well enough condition for another battle right now," Kurt reasoned.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Sam put Missile's Pokéball back on his belt.

"I'll do it." I told Sam, stepping forward toward the wobbly weed Pokémon.

Sam smiled. "Alright then, Nova, use Shadow Ball!"

I charged and released the purple sphere.

"Watch out!" A vine was rapidly approaching. The Vine Whip pushed me back a couple feet but I remained standing and relatively unhurt.

"Bell!" It whipped its vines again and I felt them wrap around my body tightly until it started to hurt, forcing me to release my grip around its arm.

"Vv…" I winced breathlessly.

"Bite!" It took me a moment to secure my feet on the ground, but when I did, I shoved myself forward and knocked the grass type out with a quick bite. Triumphantly, I stepped out of the Bellsprout's limp vines.

"That's how you do it," I remarked snidely to Gold. Gold just laughed at me.

"Fine, you take the next battle then," I called back at him.

And he did.

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><p>When we were stopping for lunch, Sam sat on a rock. It wouldn't have been a problem had a tail not been resting on that rock. A tail that belonged to a monkey Pokémon who shrieked and charged at us as Sam yelled apologies back at it.<p>

"It's no use!" Kurt yelled. "Mankey will chase us until we get tired. They never stop chasing someone who makes them angry!"

"What?" Sam suddenly stopped an spun around to face the Mankey. "That's crazy!" Gold ran up only a few feet in front of the raging Pokémon.

"Do you want to battle him, Gold?"

"Duh," Gold retorted, cracking his knuckles.

"MAAANKEY!" The primate's open hand came down on Gold's shoulder.

"Hey, fight fair!" Gold grunted, taking a half step back to re-orient himself.

"Rrr!" Mankey, crazed with rage delivered a powerful Fury Swipes attack but Gold curled up just in time to avoid most of the hits.

Sam had broken out of his surprised state by now and was back in trainer mode.

"Roll back and use Defense Curl again!"

To my surprise, Gold obeyed without hesitation. The Mankey sprung at him and delivered a scratch that barely scraped Gold's brick armor.

"Gold, Rapid Spin!" Sam commanded, just as Mankey prepared another Low Kick.

"Quick, end it! Use Rock Smash!"

_Gold knows Rock Smash?_

The shrew Pokémon put one arm out to defend himself and used the other to reach far behind him. The resulting swing connected between the Pokémon's eyes and it fell back, unconscious.

"Great job, Gold!" Sam cheered. "Do you think I should catch it? I seemed pretty strong."

"No way!" Gold shook his head. "He's got no honor!"

Sam sighed, "Alright, I guess not then. We'd better go before he wakes up."

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><p>Vermilion City was a nice city on the ocean.<p>

I know because when we arrived, I ran towards the salty smell and skidded to a stop at the sight of the ocean's vastness. It was gorgeous. We all stared in wonder while the sun set. I had never imagined how beautiful the sun could look reflecting off the water.

Finally, when the sun had sunk and it was growing dark, Rae yawned and suggested we go to the Pokémon Center.

"Nurse Joy! How are you?"

"Fine thank you, would you like me to heal your Pokémon?"

"Yes, please," Sam unloaded his Pokéballs onto the tray, "Up you go, Nova." Sam said, patting the counter.

I shook my head.

"We should probably call it a night then, huh Nova?"

I yawned.

Sam laughed, "And tomorrow, we'll train for the Gym."

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><p>"'Help, little Timmy's gone and fallen in the well again. REWARD: 70 P.'" Sam read. "What are they doing, waiting for someone to respond to this?" Sam sweat-dropped.<p>

"We don't have any grass or water types to pull him out, so we can't exactly do anything." Rae said.

"That or are you turned off by the 70 Poké reward?" Kurt teased.

"Sorry to interrupt, but are you related to Jenny, by any chance?"

I nearly jumped off Sam's shoulder in surprise. A tanned woman with thick, long red hair stood behind them. She looked athletic and around twenty years old.

"Who're you?" Rae asked.

"Sorry, you can call me Ace," Ace shook hands with the three trainers, "I just noticed how much you look like Officer Jenny."

"They're—well, a few of them are my cousins. Actually, this town's Jenny is my cousin—so is Celadon's, Viridian's and Lavender's. My name's Rae."

"Nice to meet you. Are you all trainers?"

"Sam is, the guy in camo is Kurt and he's an adventurer. I'm training Pokémon for the Police Force."

"Interesting. And you're looking for a job?"

"Yep," Sam said.

Ace looked thoughtful. "Well, I usually don't recruit newbie trainers, but you all seem to have good heads on your shoulders and if you're related to my best friend, Jenny…I'll let you in."

I twitched my ears, intrigued.

"…In?" Kurt asked.

"Follow me," she said. Hesitantly, we followed her into a nondescript but well-maintained building. She flashed an ID card and a guard held the doors for us. I hopped off Sam's shoulder as we entered.

Ace started to explain as we walked down a long hallway.

"I'm a member of the Pokémon Missions Corp. It's a guild of trainers closely affiliated with the government. In lower ranks, it's more of an odd-jobs set up with a flat pay rate or allowance once a week. When you get promoted, you can go on missions and fight Teams like Rocket or Aqua."

We entered a small room that I decided must be her office and she sat on a couch. The three trainers followed suit.

"Some people who work here are technicians or intelligence but the people who go out of the file are the Task Force. That's us."

"That…that sounds amazing but I can't. I want to fulfill my dream of becoming a Pokémon Master," Sam told her sadly. I nuzzled against him.

"You don't need to stop collecting badges or traveling. This is the HQ but there's dozens of smaller bases around the world that you'd only have to stop by after a big mission or for new gear.

"You'd be given a TaskFinder. It's smaller than a Pokédex and you can get a virtual job bulletin on it. It's synced to your location. Occasionally, you'll get a mandatory job, to make sure you're earning the right to the payroll but otherwise, extra jobs are extra money. And when you rank higher, you'll start going on Missions. It's good experience for battling or police Pokémon."

"Wow!" Sam said, delighted. I wasn't completely sold and neither was Rae.

"Is there anything else? Besides Poké and experience?"

Ace grinned. "You're very clever. That't the same question Jenny asked before we joined. You'll be able to enter crime scenes, assist police investigations and take better jobs that on the general bulletins.

"In addition, there are ranks. For trainers, you start as Trainees, then Rookies, Members, Officers, Knights then Missionaries. For Pokémon it goes from Normal Rank to Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and finally Legendary."

I jumped onto Sam's lap, completely intrigued. Ace grinned and continued.

"There are 1,850 Task Force Pokémon in the world right now—about 50 trainers per region. Of those, only 600 Pokémon are ranked. 400 are Bronze or higher, 150 are Silver or higher, 40 are Gold or higher, 16 are Platinum or higher. But only three have made it to Legendary Rank. It isn't easy, I'm afraid," Ace frowned slightly.

Sam stood up and extended his hand towards the red haired woman. "I'm in."

"So are we," Rae said.

Ace smiled. "Awesome, I'll grab the papers real fast."

Giddy with excitement, Sam walked over to a picture to inspect it. I climbed onto his shoulder, wishing I was taller so it would be easier.

I studied the picture too. There was a boy older than Sam (and much taller). He had black hair tied in a ponytail and a black hoodie. He had red eyes. I had only seen that in Pokémon. It was unnerving to see it in a person. With him was a Gardevoir and an Aggron.

"Who's this?" Sam asked as Ace returned with the papers.

Ace approached the picture as well. "Him?" Ace smiled. "That's Zerato."

"Zerato?"

"Yes, he's a member as well, actually he's a Knight already. A bit of a legend around here. One of the best double battlers I've ever met. I didn't last three minutes."

"Wow. Do you think I'll met him?" Sam asked, finally looking away.

Ace looked amused by this. "Probably not, he's ranked a lot higher than you. And if you do, he'll probably challenge you to a battle. He's an interesting guy though," Ace looked thoughtful. "Well, anyway here's your papers." She handed out a single sheet of paper to Rae, Sam and Kurt. "I'm going to grab you a TaskFinder."

Sam sat down and read the print. Finally he signed his name.

After that, Ace handed Sam the TaskFinder and explained it to him a little bit. I didn't pay attention to that but I wasn't going to use it anyway. Finally, we all went to a different room to take ID pictures. Even I got one.

NAME: Nova

GENDER: Female

SPECIES: Eevee

DOB: August 1

(Then there was a picture next to me followed by a little red star that none of the other Pokémon had.)

RANK: None

TRAINER: Sam Greyson (Trainee)

CURRENT: None

(Ace explained to us that since this card was digital, it would automatically sync to the TaskFinder. Current was the section where law exemptions for missions would be put, for example, assisting Police)

After looking (Sam read it to us) at my card and Gold's (which said Late June for his birthday) I turned my attention to Sam's which was slightly different from ours.

NAME: Sam Greyson

GENDER: Male

DOB: May 15

AGE: 12

(A picture of him. He didn't have the red star by _his _name either.)

ENTRY DATE: April 4

CAREER: Trainer

RANK: Trainee

CURRENT: None

Ace brought us back to the room and gave us lanyards for me and the other Pokémon to carry our IDs for high-security cases we might take. She told us that each trainer would get an allowance of 3000 Poké a week at Trainee level.

I knew enough about money that that would cover our food expenses and a few potions before we were broke but it was more than we'd get going on jobs on our own.

Then she told us about the free five-day training crash-course offered to Guild members for training Pokémon and going on jobs for the PMC. We signed up for that too.

* * *

><p>The fourth day of training was much like the first three. It began by waking up early and some of us would go and spar while others would swim in the pool. The trainers would learn some self-defense or rock-climb and then everyone would eat.<p>

Everyday I chose to spar—after Cerulean City, swimming wasn't something I wanted to re-live. If Gold or Sam had noticed my inclination towards sparring, I didn't doubt they would've have forced to me take the swim lesson. Fortunately, the only one who did notice was Poison, who was equally fearful of water.

That didn't bode well for our team however, what with me and Poison being scared of water, Gold being too heavy to swim properly and Missile being a flying bug. If we were ever stranded in the water, we'd all be relying on the buoyancy of Azurill's tail.

That disturbing thought alone was enough to repel me from the beach, but I digress.

The fourth day was much like the first three. After we ate, the faster Pokémon (among them, a friendly Squirtle, Poison, Gold and I) ran through the town.

Where as before, I had quaked at the idea of battling a Gym and would have much preferred training for weeks to ensure I had over-prepared, I was eager and almost restless to battle. Running past the gym everyday, I quickly came to realize that the charred scent coming from the large building was not fire but electrical burn. The Vermilion City Gym was Electric.

After we ran, we practiced special attacks (of which I only had two). Then we'd work on skills such as balancing on thin platforms of climbing trees. I could only scale the easiest trees. Finally, before the end of the day, we'd go over mission scenarios.

The fifth day was not like the first four days. The director of the boot camp assigned jobs to all the trainers. He put Rae, Sam and Kurt together since they'd be traveling together anyway.

I climbed onto Rae's back as she stooped down to tie her shoe and launched onto Sam's shoulder to inspect the screen of the TaskFinder that had just beeped. I recognized the words 'Sam, Rae and Kurt' at the top of the screen but the rest I didn't understand.

"Task 1: Apple Picking, Objective: Assist in Apple picking," Sam said, touching an arrow symbol in the corner of the page. A compass-like screen replaced the text.

"I guess this is what we follow, then," Sam said.

"Let's go!"

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><p><strong>Not a particularly exciting chapter but paramount to the plot for the rest of the story-we do need them bad guys<strong>

Zerato belongs to Linch Lord.

**Please review!**


	31. Seeking and Odd Pokemon

**Hey guys! Extra long chapter! Happy Fourth of July!** *Nova and Gold send up Swift attacks*

**Also, I just turned 18 so I'm excited about that.**

**whakamole:** It makes me indescribably happy that you are so supportive and involved in this story. The fact that you try to review for every chapter is completely makes my day. Ha ha, I'm glad you liked the red star thing. I enjoy putting little references to the games in there :) Thanks for PM-ing me, that was a great surprise! I hope this chapter meets your expectations!

**MewFanGirl: **Thank you! I'm always glad to hear that it's different from other stories, sometimes I have concerns about that, what with starting with an eevee. Thanks for catching that mistake. The first repeat was a literary device, the second not so much. Enjoy!

** I also just started a full time job three weeks ago so it's been a struggle to get everything ready but here it is!**

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><p>It only took half an hour to arrive at the apple orchard. Finding the small, green roofed, wooden house among the apple trees took another fifteen minutes.<p>

Finally, we located the overly-recluse house and Sam knocked on the door, eager to finish the job and continue our journey.

A girl younger than Sam opened the door for us."Are you the trainers from Vermillion?" She blushed, hiding part of her face behind the wooden door.

"That's us, nice to meet ya," Kurt smiled, extending a hand.

The young girl breathed a sigh of relief and touched Kurt's hand quickly in lieu of a handshake. "Thank goodness, my big brother said you'd be coming. If you could help us harvest the apples that would be very helpful!

"Usually, we can do it all ourselves but there's a mysterious grass Pokémon that keeps attacks us and the Butterfree that live here! Sometimes, it'll eat an entire tree's apples in one night!"

Sam and the others released the other Pokémon as the young girl brought us baskets half her size to carry the apples. The other Pokémon and I—uninterested in the whisperings of the young human—dissolved into the orchard, intent on starting the job.

"Wouldn't it be amazing to climb to the top of a tree?" I sighed, looking longingly at the branches as our group walked through a row of fruit-bare trees.

"No, that sounds awful. If we were meant for the sky we'd have wings." Gold replied, snapping a twig in half in his paws.

"That's pretty narrow-minded," I observed mildly.

"There's some!" Poison shouted, jumping up in excitement. I followed the direction of his flaring nose. Apples! We all ran to a large group of dozens of trees heavy with the weight of fresh apples.

"Wow, they're so many," squeaked Cleffa, squeezing her hands together in delight.

"And they look so good! Nova, do you think Rae would be angry if we had one?" Igglybuff asked, unintentionally using her big, puppy-dog eyes.

"No, I don't think they'll mind as long as we do a good job afterwards," I told her thoughtfully.

"But how do we get them down?" Poison frowned.

"Ram into the tree with your face!" Azurill chimed in. Gold laughed.

"No way! My horn'll get stuck…or I could damage the tree!"

"Then I'll just…" I scooted over to the closest tree and stretched my front legs onto he trunk, digging my small claws into the bark. I jumped up with my hind legs, intending on beginning my ascent towards the tallest branches.

Instead, I found myself flat on the ground. "Ugh," I groaned, picking myself back up.

Missile lowered the basket he had been carrying and fluttered easily to a bunch of apples. With some difficulty, he managed to remove two apples and carry them down to us. I nosed them over to the police Pokémon before Abra could take one.

"Cool. Can you grab some more?" Gold asked.

"Absolutely…I only wish…that I had paws like yours, Nova."

"Yeah, must be hard to do much more than shish-kabob, huh?" Gold laughed bad-humoredly, catching an apple that fell from Missile's stingers.

After Igglybuff finished her apple, which was incredibly quick, considering her stature, she hopped onto Missile's back and landed on the branch of the nearby tree. Below her, Azurill sent up a line of three large bubbles. As the apple popped each bubble, it slowed down and Azurill caught it safely on top of her head.

"Hurry up and eat your apple, slacker!"

"Right, actually, I'll just eat one later, I want to get to work." I told him, dropping the apple in the basket.

"Whatever," Gold said, slamming his fist into a smaller tree behind him. He managed to catch the apples that dropped and I did my best to not be impressed.

Even Abra was doing something, using Telekinesis to pick the apples. Albeit, one at a time.

The trainers came and met us and Kurt took our full basket back.

"Remember, we've got to watch out for the grass-type."

"Yeah, it sounds tough," Sam said, gripping the tree and scooting his way up.

"What? You can climb trees?" I jumped pathetically at its base.

"Wanna come up?" Sam asked.

"Yes, I want to come up! How?" I grunted, frustrated. I tried again, this time more slowly. Sam smiled and jumped down, landing in a crouch.

I jumped on his back and wrapped my front legs around his neck. He climbed the tree again and set me next to him on the branch. As soon as the vertigo dissolved, it was amazing. I pulled down some apples, jumping from branch to branch, starting to enjoy that split-second sensation that you didn't know if the branch beneath you was swaying or falling.

"Suck it, Gold!" Yelled down at him, jumping to the closest tree,

"Careful, Nova!" Sam called after me.

"Yep!" I called, jumped to another branch.

Finally, I found myself in Igglybuff's tree.

"Nova!" She was alone now and it looked like we had both strayed a little from the group.

"Hey, how's it going?" I panted.

"Great! Wha-What's that?"

I narrowed my eyes in the direction Igglybuff was pointing. "That's a vine! Watch out!" I pushed her in to the air so she landed on my back. I jumped to another branch just in time.

"I-It's getting closer." Iggly cried, holding onto my collar. I realized the Pokémon must have been following me, waiting for me to stop moving in order to attack.

"Crap, hold—ahh!"

A vine wrapped around my front leg and pulled us down to the ground. I struggled back onto my feet quickly despite having the wind knocked out of me from the tall drop.

Standing in front of our attacker, the first thing I noticed was her size—or lack thereof. Her body was bulbous and blue with a clump of weedy leaves sprouting on top of her head.

"Get out of here and stop eating my apples trees!" She spat with a surprising amount of ferocity. Even her little red eyes looked hateful.

"We'll only fight you if you refuse to stop attacking others and hogging all the fruit," I told her, wanting to end the conflict without violence if at all possible.

"Well, maybe I don't wanna stop!" The Grass-type stuck out her tongue, sizing me and Iggly up.

"If you don't want to stop, then we'll fight. And I have four limbs over you so it won't be pretty," I dared her.

"Hold on, Nova!" Iggly said from my back.

"What's wrong?" I asked, whipping my head back to face her.

"I want to fight this battle," Iggly told me.

"You…what?" I was unpleasantly surprised. My protective instinct over them was too strong and I didn't want to see any of them hurt, "Why?"

"Because I want to protect you this time, because this Oddish is really mean and because Rae's about to show up."

I swiveled my head around to look behind me as Rae burst through some shrubs.

"Thank goodness you guys are alright! Oh, who is this?"

The Oddish lashed out at me with a Vine Whip. I dodged neatly to the side.

"Wow, an Oddish who can use Vine Whip! Is this Pokémon causing all the trouble?" Rae asked Iggly.

"Yes she is!" Igglybuff nodded affirmatively.

"Alright then, Iggly! It looks like you're ready to fight so let's go!"

"Idiots, I'll whip your lardy butt from here to Johto!" As the Oddish spoke, a vine whipped toward Igglybuff. I squinted in the shade of dozens of trees. There was no doubting it, the vine wasn't coming from the Oddish.

I skirted around the battlers and pounced into a bush several feet behind Oddish, catching a Bellsprout in my jaws. Quickly, it countered with a Razor Leaf but it wasn't strong enough to cut through my furry collar. I backed up slightly and fired off a quick Shadow Ball, leaving a smoked, unconscious Bellsprout behind. The Oddish had just aimed a Poison Powder at Igglybuff when I emerged from the bushes.

"Send them back!" Rae ordered. Iggly sucked in air and sent the spores flying back. Unfortunately, they seemed to have no effect on Oddish.

"You're doing great, Igglybuff, try Pound." Oddish, having no arms, had no proper way to block Iggly's attack and got hit right in the face. Iggly was about to go in for a second hit when faint green bubble rose out of Iggly's body and went into the Oddish's mouth. Igglybuff panted slightly but Oddish seemed to have recovered some.

Oddish stuck out her tongue, "Now your energy's mine, fatty!"

"Don't think you'll win…weed-face!" Iggly told her, bringing her tiny arms in toward her chest and tucking her legs closer to her body. "Defense Curl!"

Iggly charged again with one fist pulled back. I grinned widely as her Pound turned into a critical hit and Oddish fell back with a scowl.

"Great work, Iggly!" I said, bounding over to her. "You've gotten a lot stronger!"

"Yes, we did it! Well, we can't just leave this oddish here or it'll just cause more trouble. I'll just catch it!" Rae threw a Pokéball at the downed mutant plant. It shook from side to side at least four times before they heard a click and the faint red light on the release faded.

"I caught an Oddish! Thanks, you two!" Rae grinned, enveloping us in a hug. I didn't really do anything in the battle but it was nice to see Rae so happy.

"Let's go find the others," Rae told me, scooping up a coo-ing Igglybuff.

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><p>Sam, Kurt and Rae explained what happened while we lay in the grass, hoping the trainers would treat us to a big dinner.<p>

Finally, at about 3 PM, we were on our way to Vermillion City. We passed a boy a few years older than Sam with straight, red hair.

"Hey kid, battle me!" He called rudely. Sam ignored him and kept walking.

"Blue, how about you get your nice ass over here?" We all stopped moving instantly. Gold had said that word more than I could count on my claws. This was different.

Rae looked shocked, Kurt who had been grinning at a joke he'd made was now making a startled grimace and Sam spun around to face the boy.

The jerk smirked. "Alright, looks like we'll be the ones battling. I'd much rather it have been Blue over there but we did make eye contact so you can't get out of it."

Sam looked angry. As angry as he had been in Boulder when Flint had talked about how he left his children. "You're disgusting!"

"Kick his ass, Sam!" Rae called, getting over the initial shock of being treated so rudely. Part of her seemed to want to fight him herself, another part knew it was unlikely she'd win—even with a new team-member.

"The battle will be one-on-one, the challenge-e picks their Pokémon first and we're playing Black-Outs." Jerk sneered, pulling his jacket back to reveal a full team.

"Whatever, you're going down!" Sam snarled, ignoring the fact that the other trainer had given him a considerable disadvantage—picking the first Pokémon in a one-Pokémon match. A bad type match-up could easily spell a premature loss. "Nova, let's win this!"

I ran half-way between the two trainers and growled fiercely, trying to break the red-head's confident air. It didn't happen, however. Instead he tossed a Greatball into the air and a canine Pokémon nearly three times my size appeared. It was orange and red and very furry.

"Destroy it, Flareon!" Jerk said. My blood went cold. _Flareon?_ The fire evolution of Eevee? I was battling an _evolution of myself_?

I had only faced two evolved Pokémon before—a raticate and a pidgeotto. But this was different. Truly, intimidatingly different. I looked back at everyone—Rae, Kurt, Cleffa (who was watching with careful eyes), Sam (who looked stressed), Missile (wearing a relatively blank expression), Poison (whose eyes were wide and whiskers were twitching), and Gold (who looked tense). I turned back to my opponent.

"Hello, Flareon," I said coolly.

"Hello, deadmeat," Flareon responded.

Before I could properly react, Flareon sprung at me. I rolled out of the way in time to avoid a bite that might have ended the match right there. I heard a protest from Sam but I was more concerned with the heat waves emitting from Flareon's Fire Fang attack.

"Alright, if that's the way you want to play it! Nova, put some distance between you two!" I jumped back a yard, still facing my opponent.

"Flareon, Double Team," the boy said. Flareon started moving quickly around me as I tried to follow his movements. Soon there were half a dozen Flareon standing around me.

"Nova, use Swift!" Sam called. I grinned and let loose a trio of stars—not my best attack, by far, but they dutifully sailed toward the correct Flareon, causing the copies to falter for a moment.

"Flamethrower!" Flareon and the illusions shot powerful attacks from all sides, I tried to dodge but I got lost in the illusionary firestorm. Which meant I was unprepared when I ran straight into the real one.

It only took a few moments until the sensation of drought multiplied into the feeling of boiling skin and burning fur. I ran blindly out of the fire, tripping onto the ground. I tried to think what Gold would do as the Flareon approached me again and smoke wafted from my burned fur and raw skin.

Gold would storm right up to Flareon, fists swinging and if the fire-type tried another Double Team, he'd fire off a powerful Swift. I couldn't really do either. I strained my mind to think faster as I pulled myself to my feet.

I wasn't familiar with Poison's fighting style but he would probably keep distance and shoot Poison Stings. Missile would fly quickly with projectiles and come in to finish it, in a typical Beedrill fashion. Even if I was a Beedrill, I doubted I'd be typical.

I had zoned out for a moment and only my instincts prevented me from getting locked in the Flareon's jaws. I stood up on my hind legs as best I could and snapped back at the fire-type. For a few moments, we tried to capture each other between our teeth. Before I became horribly aware that Flareon's mouth was much, much larger than mine. I performed a Quick Attack, pulling away again safely.

The burns I'd sustained were starting to take effect—I was losing energy and it was getting increasingly harder to charged and again, I tried to dodge to the side. This time, he grabbed my back foot. Terrified, I ripped it out of his tightening hold.

It didn't take me long to regret it. Half a dozen stinging, deep cuts now lined my back-leg vertically. I rolled away and upon facing my opponent again, tried to put weight on it. I winced and raised it from the ground again. I had been using my back legs to execute quick dodges. Running away didn't seem to be an option anymore. I charged and fired a Shadow Ball, hoping the weight of my anger would drop the Flareon instantly. Of course, it didn't but he did lose his footing and collect a few scratches on his chest. I panted, feeling dizziness creep up on me.

His wound was almost nothing but it let me know that this Flareon wasn't invincible. Flareon came at me again and I dug my teeth into his shoulder, effectively stopping his charge. He growled and sprayed a wall of embers in my face, the attack was enough to unlatch my teeth from his shoulder and put me back on the ground. My eyesight started fading.

_No, I don't want to lose._ I struggled and tried to get up again but couldn't. I felt my body relax as my eyes closed and my breathing became more regular. I even sensed my wound starting to staunch.

It felt like longer, but fifteen seconds later, I woke up again; with a start. I wasn't healed—far from it. I had woken up because every nerve in my body was screaming 'you're still in danger'. My paws felt tingly and I felt light-headed but my leg didn't hurt so bad and I had more energy so I stood back up.

The two trainers seemed to be in a dispute.

"What do you mean it's not over?" Sam shouted, he had stepped up almost to the middle of the field, near me. Jerk had done the same. His Flareon was sitting primly at his feet.

"It's not over, wimp! You agreed to a Black-Out battle. I bet you don't even know what that means!"

"What are you talking about?" Sam yelled again, clearly frustrated. I sat up as Gold walked up to me. He looked angry too.

"Damn sadistic Flareon. What'd we get ourselves into?" He growled. I just shook my head, too dazed to answer. My adrenaline was pumping, getting me upright. Gold held out a closed paw. First, I wondered if he wanted a fist bump but he impatiently grabbed my clumsy paw and turned it around. He dropped an Oran Berry in it.

"Thanks," I told him, nodding gratefully before chewing on it. It was small so it didn't a big difference but it filled me with more energy and some confidence. Gold and I diverted our attention back onto the two trainers.

"Normal battles, a Pokémon is unable to battle and that's it. But Pokémon have an instinct that shuts them down when they're hurt so they don't destroy themselves fighting the average battle, dumb-ass. Black-Out battles are fights that keep going past cowardly limitations. Pokémon automatically suppress fainting when the danger doesn't end. It doesn't stop when the Pokémon faints, it ends when they _black-out_," Jerk sneered, in a faux-helpful way. "Get to your side of the field, loser, this battle isn't over yet."

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><p><strong>Please review!<strong>

**I'll do my best to get it out soon! Please review!**


	32. Startling Sparks

**Hey everybody, today is my fifth anniversary of my fanfic account! Over five years, I've archived 115k words, which I'm pretty happy with, even if its kind of low. Anyway, let's hope for another five years too!**

_Story stats so far: 54 reviews, 70,000 words, 6.3k views, 24 faves, 23 alerts_

**I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I just didn't have a lot of inspiration, on the bright side, I did a lot of planning for chapters SUPER far in the future so thats awesome :)**

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><p>The battle started again, after an argument between Sam and the jerk kid. Nova had had to physically start to push Sam toward the sidelines again. Battling and winning the Pokémon League for Sam was nothing if it meant she wasn't following the rules, here in the middle of nowhere with another trainer.<p>

And there was no way Nova was going to let Rae kiss him. Because that was the stakes. Sam could give up, but Rae would have to kiss him. And Nova didn't want to give up, even without that happening.

Flareon charged at her again. _What's strong against fire? Water and ground right? _Nova didn't have attacks for either and Flareon's thick coat was absorbing a good part of her physical attacks too.

Nova charged up a Shadow Ball, concentrating on its success. She nearly released it too early in fear as the Flareon covered the distance between the two of them. Finally, she fired it off when there were only a few feet between them.

Flareon appeared through the dark fog the attack had released a little more scratched up but otherwise fine, and tackled Nova hard enough that she went airborne. Luckily, she regained control in mid-air and landed skidding on her feet. The energy she had gained from the Oran Berry and the potion were starting to fade and her hind leg was starting to hurt again. She shook the thumping sound out of her ears and returned the Tackle. She could feel herself starting to be reckless but she knew that her body's endurance was starting to have a very real time limit.

Nova figured that Sam hadn't called her back despite the hopelessness of the battle because he wanted to protect Rae, he wanted to follow the rules or he simply believed in her.

"Flame Wheel!" The Flareon's trainer said. Flareon instantly ignited in flames and started running towards Nova. As he picked up speed, he started to spin, performing smooth somersaults. Nova was paralyzed as the burning ball of fire raced toward her.

"Nova, brace yourself!" Sam called, realizing that Nova wouldn't be able to move in time, especially not exhausted and injured as she was. Nova tensed her muscles and dug her claws into the dirt, preparing for impact. It wasn't a move like Gold had but, with luck, it would help.

When the Flareon bowled into Nova, she hit the ground again on her side and made a move to get up again that fell short. Flareon picked himself up, shook out its thick coat and walked over to her.

"Get up Rusty! What're you doin'?"  
>Nova made no move to indicate that she had heard.<p>

"Actually, its better that you don't move." Flareon told her. Nova made eye contact with him briefly before getting to her feet. Flareon rolled his eyes and bit into her shoulder.

Nova struggled and tried to charge up an attack but everything she tried fizzled out. It seemed she had run out of Power Points for her attacks. Her body was too exhausted to produce them. Flareon bit down harder and fire started to lick Nova's shoulder. Finally, the pain was enough that Nova was able to wrench herself away, she cautiously backed up several feet, staring down her opponent, who still had fire in her mouth.

"Flamethrower!"

Nova didn't move from her spot, two of her limbs rendered nearly useless. Instead, she shielded her face in her tail, most likely saving herself from some bad temporary scarring. By the time the attack ended, Nova no longer had the strength to stand so she let her back-legs buckle behind her. Nova's roan coat was stained with soot and burns enough that she looked more black than red.

Flareon was on her in seconds, lashing out with his claws, leaving thick scratches across her cheek. Nova bit down on his paw hard enough that she felt his bone. Flareon's eyes widened and he prepared another blast of fire at point-blank range. Nova made eye-contact with the crazed fire-type.

"Give me all you got." And her vision was obscured with flames.

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><p>Nova blinked sleepily, surveying her surroundings as well as she could without moving. She was at a Pokémon Center, not like it was unexpected after the battle she had had. She was lying on one of the smaller cots but there was still plenty of room. She had a thin blanket tucked over her and an IV in her front leg. She lifted a paw lightly to examine it. It was taped around her wrist several times to make sure it didn't come out. Then she focused on the rest of her body. Most of the pain was barely there but she could feel the throbbing of two of her legs and a patches were she had been burned along her body. She lifted her tail to inspect it and slowly turned around to the other side to see more of the room.<p>

Nova froze when she saw Gold staring right at her from the seat across the room. Several seconds elapsed in which he just seemed to become more and more pissed off.

"Gold." Nova said just to break the silence. For several seconds, he didn't say anything.

"That battle was disgusting," he finally said. Nova huffed a breath of relief. It seemed that his anger wasn't directed towards her.

"The Flareon didn't fight fair, but I'm fine now." Nova assured him, touched that he cared so much.

"I don't give a shit about the Flareon!" Gold exploded. Nova froze in confusion.

Gold jumped from the chair onto the nightstand less than a foot from Nova's face. "What I do care about is the fact that during that second half of the battle, you just gave up."

"Gold, I couldn't have won! I was against a Flareon!" She persisted.

"Then you should have played dead."

"I couldn't just stop! There was too much at stake!"

Gold looked murderous and for a moment, she was afraid that Gold was going to reach over and smother her with her own pillow. "I hate selfish people like you. Ya really think that Rae would prefer seein' you beaten down than kiss that bastard? Ya really think that Sam cared about his reputation while you were being ground to friggin' pulp? Poison almost ran out there too, Sam had to recall him 'cause he wouldn't calm down."

"I-I—" Nova stuttered, not knowing what to say.

Gold looked at her. "If you're stubborn enough to stay in a battle then make damn sure you win it." Nova's eyes widened and she tried to say something. He had a good point. She had done what she had for the people she cared about but she hadn't thought about what they _wanted. _She pulled herself up slightly to look at him better.

"Where's Poison now?" She knew Poison had been hesitant about battling, this might have prevented him from ever really trying it.

"He left this morning. I think he's either gonna take his anger out on the trees or try finding the jerk-ass." Gold said.

Nova blinked then glared at him, she had just hoped that they were getting along."What, and you didn't stop him?"

"Because he's right."

The Sandshrew cleared his throat awkwardly after neither of them said anything for several moments. "I'm going to meet the others in the field a couple minutes behind this building. We're battling the Gym on Wednesday. Today's Sunday so if you try to train with us before Tuesday, you're gonna have a one-way ticket back here." Gold left.

_It was Sunday already? _Nova reflected. That meant she had slept for over a day. With nothing left to do, she rested her head on her paws and focused on deep breaths instead of thick flames until she fell back to sleep.

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><p>Mid-day on Monday, a few hours after everyone went out to train, Nova realized that she hadn't officially introduced herself to Rae's new member of the team—Oddish. Nova's IV had been removed while everyone visited her last night, so she jumped off the cot and snuck over to the sliding glass door. A man walked in shortly after and she slipped past, following the scent of her friends.<p>

Finally, she made her way to a clearing where everyone was training. Gold was the first to notice her and stomped over.

"What part of Tuesday don't you—" Gold started, throughly annoyed.

"I'm not going to try to battle, I learned that lesson last time. I realized I hadn't met Oddish yet, so I was gonna introduce myself. I didn't see her last night…"

Gold seemed to calm down. "Well, you're not missing much," he said, gesturing to the small Oddish that sat a distance from Rae and the P3 were training. Nova shrugged and walked over to her.

"Hi, I'm Nova, I'm Sam's starter." Nova told her. Oddish didn't answer so she tried again. "Rae's a good trainer, I think you'll get along really well. And maybe it's hard to imagine right now, but being on a team is a lot of fun." Nova said, remembering Gold's original reluctance to work with anyone.

Oddish snapped her head, which was her entire body, towards Nova, who had sat down, still not entirely recovered from the battle two days ago. "Shut up, pet. You're weak and old and that's why you're traveling with humans!"

"Wha…what?" Nova stuttered, taken aback. She had expected her to act similar to Gold when he had just joined, maybe a little calmer. She had expected Oddish to be upset, confused, maybe frustrated that her life was going to be different. But this was flat-out aggression. "You've been terrorizing that orchard for almost a full year, you're older than me!" Nova responded without thinking.

Oddish looked surprised for a moment, then even angrier. "Shut up or I'll poison you! Your fur smells like sewers!" She yelled brattishly.

Nova stood up, realizing that she wasn't getting anywhere. "Alright," she said

Nova lay in the grass across the clearing from the hot-headed Oddish. A little while later, Sam left Poison and Gold to spar and sat next to Nova in the shade of a large oak tree. Nova crawled into his lap sleepily and closed her eyes.

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><p>The next day, when she woke up by Nurse Jenny's hand and did her best not to jump back in surprise. "Good morning, Nova. Sam told me you wanted to train today so I'm gonna give you your exam now so hopefully you can join them this morning." She told Nova cheerily.<p>

Nova nodded cautiously and sat stiffly on the cot as Nurse Joy checked her scrapes and nearly healed burns.

"They're eating breakfast right now so you can join them as soon as we're done." The pink-haired woman said conversationally as she held a stethoscope to Nova's chest and wrote something down on her clipboard. Finally, she ripped a small sheet of paper off and smiled. "Alright, Nova, you have a clean bill of health."

Nova grabbed the note from her hand and jumped of the bed, headed towards the kitchen. She heard the sound of Nurse Joy's laughter as she escaped the room.

She trotted into the room with the slip of paper and jumped onto the chair next to Sam that was inhabited by Gold. Gold grumbled something into his bowl of oatmeal but scooted over so that Nova could fit as well.

Sam greeted her with a ruffle of her fur and accepted the note she'd been carrying. "Nova's good to go!" Sam said happily. "I'm glad you're feeling better!"

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><p>The next morning, Sam's team got ready quietly. Nova wondered if Gym Battles were ever going to stop making her feel nervous.<p>

They had made it to the middle of town before Rae stopped them to tell them she was going to buy supplies to leave town. After wishing everyone luck, she ran off to the Pokémart.

Finally, Sam pushed both doors to the Gym open and his team walked through, Sam and Kurt following. Across a large battle field was a stocky blonde man dressed in camo.

"Hey, trainer! The name's Lt. Surge! Welcome to my Gym, we'll each use three Pokémon, so call out a Pokémon when you're ready!" The military man boomed.

"Whoa," Kurt whispered in awe, "he's cool." Abra, who had panicked only moments before from the Gym Leader's alarmingly loud voice, mewled in agreement at the man's apparent coolness.

Lt. Surge tossed a Pokéball out onto the field, releasing a Voltorb. Sam turned to his team. "Alright, Missile, you're gonna watch this battle, right now, you have a double disadvantage." He turned back to face his opponent. "For the first match, I chose Poison!"

Poison looked nervous, this would be his first ever Gym Battle. To Nova's surprise, it was Missile who cheered him on.

"You can do this…Nido." The Beedrill buzzed quietly. Nova smiled with exasperation. So Missile didn't know Poison's name, but at least he had tried encouraged the poison-point Pokémon.

Poison nodded and walked onto the gym floor. The opposing Voltorb crackled in anticipation.

"Poison Sting!" Sam called out. Poison fired off several Poison Stings from his mouth, hitting Voltorb's spherical body. The electric-type shot a Sonicboom but Poison jumped into the air in order to avoid it. "Good work, now use Double Kick!"

Poison ran up close and delivered two strong kicks to the Voltorb's body, knocking him back. Voltorb released a loud Screech back at Poison, who tried to dodge but still took the brunt of the chilling noise.

Nova backed up to where Abra was sitting, missing the company of Rae and the P3s. At first glance, it looked like Abra's eyes were closed but Nova realized they must have been opened just a little bit as his eyes seemed to shift underneath his eyelids.

"Alright, Voltorb, let's end this!" Lt. Surge called.

'Vollll,' Voltorb replied, charging up electricity.

"Careful!" Sam warned, fists clenched. Arcs of electricity shot out one at a time, as Poison scrabbled out of the way of each attack. Although he wasn't getting hit, he was obviously being forced into defense. Making it nearly impossible to get close enough for a physical attack.

"Nice aim!" Poison taunted, firing off a Poison Sting, which glanced off the side of Voltorb's hard body. Nova's ears perked up in surprise. Shouting abuse at others wasn't quite his style, had he picked that up from Gold? Poison rolled out of the way of a couple more, getting hit by one but still avoiding hits. Voltorb looked frustrated.

"Stop running around!" Voltorb rumbled. The moment his mouth opened, a stray Poison Sting landed in his mouth. It's eyes widened in surprise, as did everyone else's.

"Nice!" Nova called out excitedly, unsure whether it was a fluke or not. By Voltorb's faltering, it was safe to assume that he had been poisoned.

"Alright, put some distance between you two!" Sam coached. Now it was just a matter of waiting it out. Both Pokémon were getting tired, but eventually the poison would cause Voltorb to faint. Poison complied and jumped back a little before using Defense Curl again.

The pattern repeated with Lt. Surge commanding Voltorb to use Sonicboom and Thunder Shocks. Within a few turns, Voltorb's attacks starting coming slower and slower until Poison ran in to finish the match with a Double Kick. Voltorb flew back several feet, knocked out.

"Great job, Poison!" Sam called and Poison gave him a tired grin as he jogged back to join the rest of the team. "Come on back and take a rest. Nova, your turn."

Nova bumped Poison with her tail playfully as she passed him on the field. Lt. Surge released a Magnemite. The eevee nervously looked back at her team, making eye-contact with Gold, who gave her a very sarcastic thumbs up. Nova took a deep breath and readied herself.

"We're going to avoid physical attacks, alright Nova?" Nova voicing her Pokédex cry. Magnemite's metal would definitely be hard defense to go around but she was up for the challenge.

Instead, she charged up a Swift attack and let them fly towards the magnet Pokémon. Nova kept shooting them off persistently and eventually, scratches started to appear on Magnemite's armor. Nova felt more and more pressure to dodge however, since she was continuously being hit with Screech attacks. Stray Thunderbolts were even starting to cause a little damage. She was already charging up her finishing move—a Shadow Ball. As she turned around to release it, Nova felt her muscles tense under the pressure of thousands of pins and needles and her fur stand up. She worked her eyes open despite the bright light around her, realizing she was being hit by a direct Thundershock. She focused on not losing her Shadow Ball and broke out of the electrical attack. _Now, while the Magnemite was winded_, she thought, firing off her ghostly energy ball as she worked to control her still spasming muscles. It was a critical hit that dropped Magnemite like a rock.

'Vee!' Nova cheered, feeling the slight rush of energy that came with defeating an enemy.

"Nova, here comes the next one!" She heard Sam tell her as the fainted Pokémon was recalled and a tall electric rodent ran to meet her in the field

'Rai,' the Raichu grinned down at her in a way that might have been friendly had it not been completely terrifying. The Raichu was easily twice her size and at least four times as heavy.

"Quick Attack!" Nova immediately charged at Raichu. Right before she reached him, she realized that Raichu had created duplicates of himself. Double Team again. But she hadn't taken her eye off the original Raichu so she rammed into the solid Raichu at full force before kicking off of him to put distance between them again. Raichu sparked up and released a Thundershock much faster than Magnemite's. Nova had to dive haphazardly into the dirt in order to avoid it.

"That Eevee's just going to keep dodging—use Shock Wave!" Lt. Surge commanded.

"Dodge!" Sam called back. Nova prepared herself, clearing away from the initial spark of electricity. Too late, Nova realized that the small spark had only broken away from the actual attack as a powerful ring of electricity fanned out in every direction away from Raichu. It was unavoidable and sent Nova tumbling backwards. Her legs were shaking slightly but she jumped back up and fired a Shadow Ball. Her Shadow Ball was met by another Shock Wave and fizzled out. Knowing she couldn't avoid it, Nova charged through the electric attack, trying to ignore the damage she was taking. An instant before her Quick Attack made contact with Raichu's soft belly, she felt a strong tail wrap around her neck and pull her upward instead.

Struggling, Nova kicked out her legs, trying to hit her opponent as the hold around her collar tightening as her feet left the ground and she was being pulled up into the air.

"Kehhh…" Nova tried to speak but the strain of her body weight on her neck left her breathless. She couldn't charge up an attack either.

"Hang in there!" A voice called, keeping her mind from slipping into panic. It might have been Sam or it might have been Gold. She focused on breaths and fighting back but her struggles were starting to weaken already.

"As soon as your trainer forfeits, I'll let you go, you're no match for me." Nova heard Raichu say. A beat passed and nothing happened. Then Nova felt an electric charge hit her not unlike a charging Tauros.

"G-gauh!" Nova grit her teeth as her legs spasmed. In the recesses of her brain, she knew Raichu must have held back a little or she'd likely have died but it hurt so badly, she didn't care. She could felt her spine conducting the electricity through her body and was surprised to realize that the electricity felt similar to an internal burn. Although the attack must have only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like much longer. No longer caring about being held up by her neck, she lay limp in Raichu's hold.

"I recall Nova!" She heard Sam call through her ringing ears. A thought of panic hit her when she realized that she had lost the Gym match. Every other time, she had finished the match._ Actually, it's alright, Gold can fix this,_ she thought tiredly as she felt the pressure on her neck disappear as she was brought back into her Pokéball.

She was only in that small meadow for a few seconds before she re-materialized on the ground in front of a crouching Sam. Gold, Abra, Missile, Kurt and Poison all hurried around her as Sam rooted through his bag, stress evident on his face.

Nova sighed deeply from where she lay in relief.

"How bad is it, Nova?" Poison asked nervously.

"Come on, sit up," Gold said, nudging her side gently with his paw.

"It's not that bad, I'm just tired," Nova twitched her leg a little, "but I can't really move. What's this?" Nova's breath hitched a little in worry.

"Hold on," Gold said, grabbing something out of Sam's bag and handing it to him.

"Paralyze heal?" Sam asked, accepting the small bottle from Gold. Sam sprayed it onto Nova's legs and back and she felt her limbs unlock and relax. She sat up slowly. 'Vee!'

Sam sprayed a potion on her as well and discarded the two empty bottles before turning to Poison. "Alright Poison, you're up again." Sam told him.

"Alright," Poison said, whiskers twitching in concern. "Nova, you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah, just winded," Nova replied weakly. "Go get 'em."

"She'll be fine," Gold assured him, rolling his eyes. "Go out there and fight."

Poison nodded and ran out to the field where a bored Raichu was playing with sand.

"Sorry for the delay, let's continue the match!" Sam called and Raichu stood up again. "Poison, get him with Double Kick!" Like Nova had done earlier, Poison charged through a Shock Wave in order to assail Raichu. Both of Poison's kicks hit powerfully. Raichu's eyes narrowed and he struck Poison with his tail. Surprisingly, Poison stood his ground and fired a Poison Sting. Then, Poison's eyes wandered back to his team, glancing back at Nova. Nova's eyes widened. _Now wasn't the time to worry about her!_

Poison's hesitation put him on the receiving end of an uppercut, throwing him backward. Raichu shook his paw out in pain at making contact with one of Poison's spikes but he didn't seem to be poisoned. The Nidoran pulled himself back up slowly and ran at Raichu again. Raichu fired off a Thundershock that hit Poison with frightening accuracy.

Nova tensed in sympathy next to Gold as Poison slumped down and his eyes fluttered closed. "Thanks Poison, you did great, return." A second later, he reappeared next to us. Sam pulled a potion out of his pocket and handed it to Kurt. "Please take care of him, Gold and I are going to finish this." Sam's resolve seemed to have redoubled.

Gold smirked, hitting his fists together. "'Bout damn time." Nova flashed a smile at him before making her way over to Poison.

She wanted to admonish him for getting distracted, but she knew he knew he made a mistake as soon as he made it and she didn't want to embarrass him.

"You did good," she said instead, playful whapping him on the forehead with her paw.

"Yeah, you too Nova," Poison replied, sitting up stiffly.

"Electricity sucks, huh." Nova laughed.

"Uh-huh," Poison said, "do we stand a chance? That Raichu is so powerful."

"Well, we got Gold. And Gold is an entire party on bad days. With his ground-typing, he'll wipe the floor with Raichu."

Gold ran through Shock Wave attacks without taking any damage, Raichu stumbled back a little bit in order to throw another attack, a Mega Punch. Gold dug his back claws into the ground and held out both paws in front of him. Raichu's punch landed squarely in his paws. He held on tight to Raichu's fist and pulled hard, throwing him off balance. Gold followed up with a jab to the stomach and an uppercut of his own.

Raichu's entire body crackled with electricity but Gold didn't seem to notice in the least. Raichu's back leg came up to kick Gold but he lowered himself and moved to the side, catching Raichu's leg with his own and pushing forward, causing Raichu to fall over.

Gold stepped back to let Raichu pull himself back up and used Defense Curl.

"Are you messing with me? Why aren't you using ground moves?" Raichu hissed, wiping blood of a cut on his cheek.

"It isn't my style." Gold said, motioning Raichu to come at him. The electric rodent acted as if he were performing a Tackle but at the last moment, his tail whipped out and slapped Gold across the face. Even as the attack made impact, Gold's arms reached out and grabbed the base of Raichu's tail tightly.

"Here we go!" Gold grunted, heaving Raichu's weight over his shoulder and slamming him to the ground.

Nova stood up in excitement. Gold was the perfect match for Raichu. He was invulnerable to his special attacks and had high defense. Since he stood on two legs, he had a physical advantage over the four-legged Nova and Poison. In addition, he stood at a much closer height to the Raichu even if he was still less than half his weight.

Raichu pulled himself up again, panting harshly. He had clearly taken a lot of damage over the last few minutes and had also expended a lot of energy battling all three of them.

"I'll show you a real Mega Punch." Gold told Raichu, holding up a fist, which started to glow white. He pulled back and punched Raichu across the face with all his might. Raichu's eyes unfocused and he toppled over.

"Yes!" Gold cheered, holding up his fist in victory. The rest of the team hurried out to meet him.

Nova sat up and extended her paw. Gold met her paw with a fist. "Nice job, Gold."

"Sam." Sam jumped up in surprise to meet Lt. Surge, who had joined them

"Lieutenant," Sam said.

Lt. Surge extended his hand and dropped a yellow badge into Sam's palms. "Congratulations, kid, you earned a Thunder Badge. That's one talented team you got there."

Nova nudged Gold when she noticed the Gym Leader looking at him as he spoke.

"Thank you." Sam said, looking at the badge in his hands. Outwardly, it might have seemed like he had thanked Lt. Surge, but as he stared at the shiny badge it his hands, he meant to address his Pokémon.

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><p><strong>Please review!<strong>

**This is the longest chapter so far btw**

**RWD over and out ;)**


	33. Rocky Road

**Alright here's chapter 33! I had a little trouble with this one-it was almost 6,000 words so I rewrote half of it because I wasn't happy with it and took parts out to make it shorter. Ultimately, I broke the chapter into two parts (the second part I'll upload later this week because, well it gets pretty intense!)**

**Just a reminder:**

Nova: Eevee

Poison: Nidoran (Male)

Gold: Sandshrew

Missile: Beedrill

**Anyway, enjoy!**

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><p>Poison, Gold and I all escaped the battle for the Thunder Badge with minimal injuries (although Poison was kind of roughed up) we were all ready to leave town the next day. Now fully packed with new gear, we were off in search of our fourth gym badge.<p>

"Where to next?" Rae asked Sam, stretching in preparation for what was likely to be a very long walk.

"Uh…" Kurt struggled with the map. "This one's pretty confusing. Looks like we have to go across Route 11, then take Route 12 until we get to Lavender Town."

"What?" Sam said, turning towards Kurt in surprise. "That could take a week."

"Better get going, then." Rae said, gesturing to the grassy route in front of them. "That is, if you want to finish in time to challenge the Pokemon League this year." She teased.

"Alright, alright!" Sam said, grabbing his backpack. "Let's go, Nova!"

The first day, we didn't get a lot of distance. Wild Pokémon came out in abundance. Later in the afternoon, Sam managed to step on an egg (it didn't even crack) upsetting a flock of Pidgey. Sam called me and Poison out to take care of them. Surprisingly, Rae sent Azurill out too and told her to do her best.

"Rae?" Sam called in surprise, protecting his head from a swooping Pidgey.

"Azurill needs more experience! Use Water Gun!" A thin but fast jet of water shot out, nailing a Pidgey in the face. It beat its wings furiously in order to avoid crashing into the ground. "Keep 'em up!"

Grinning, I held up a struggling Pidgey in my mouth and motioned to it. Azurill nodded and caught it with a Water Gun that left him limp in my teeth. I set him down where he was and looked for another Pidgey to take down but the remaining conscious Pidgey were dropping to the ground with a glassy look in their eyes. It seemed like Poison had managed to get the poison side effect on the other Pidgey.

"Nicely done, everyone!" Sam smiled, dusting off the egg he had stepped on and placing it next to one of the Pidgey. "You really shouldn't keep this on the ground, you know."

—

It was two days later, early into the day's travel when I caught a scent that felt slightly familiar to me. I looked around and followed Sam cautiously.

"Who are they?" Kurt asked, pointing ahead. In front of them were three men in gray and brown camouflage outfits and berets. "Cool! They wear camo too!"

When we had come closer, Sam raised his voice to greet them. "Hey guys! Can you tell me how close we are to Lavender?"

The three men froze. Finally the one on the middle laughed. "You're such a noob! We're nowhere _near _Lavender!" His face became serious suddenly. "And unfortunately for you, you won't be getting any closer. Not now that you know that Team Magna is hanging out on Route 11!"

"Team Magna?" Rae asked in confusion, her sentiments reflected in Sam and Kurt's confused faces too. I felt my heart race. Team Magna… I had heard of them before when Gold and I had been on our own. I had seen two members that had tried to catch us, and they were doing some kind of digging project. They were dangerous.

I looked up at Sam, communicating my concern. He looked back up at the three Team Magna members. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, loser, that you and your friends aren't gonna leave here in one piece! We can't have kids meddling in our business!" With that, he and his friends released their Pokemon: two Raticate and four Ratatta, two Polywag, an Ekans and a Diglett.

Sam stepped back, scared and realizing that these people might be trying to kill him. "Go!" He threw all of his remaining Pokéballs and I watched the rest of my team emerge. Kurt and Rae did the same.

"Gold, it's Team Magna!" I called to him.

"Good, I've been meaning ta pay 'em back for what they did last time," he remarked, not missing a beat. I meant to respond but I got a face full of water.

"I'm making that one the first on my list." I growled, facing the offending Polywag. It was roughly my size, and I was used to having to fight Pokemon bigger than myself so it was probably good news for me. I rammed into it, straight in the middle of its stomach spiral, knocking it back. When it opened its mouth to attack, acting on impulse, I shoved my paw into its mouth. It squirmed underneath me, trying to summon enough power to shoot out an attack but it couldn't muster it. Yeah, I was angry. It's trainers had just threatened the life of everyone in the world that I cared about. I removed my paw and bit the tadpole creature, who fainted immediately.

I surveyed the scene for another opponent when I felt the presence of a Pokémon, I whipped around and made quick work of the Raticate.

I turned towards Gold, who was growling at the Raticate. They looked pretty similar next to each other like that, not like I'd ever tell him. Behind him a Polywag was charging up an attack, I realized, aimed at him.

"Gold! Watch—" The Polywag, shot off a pretty intimidating blast of water towards Gold. Right before it hit him, Gold disappeared.

"Huh?" I swung my head around. The water gun hit Raticate instead. Behind the Polywag were Gold and Abra. Had Abra teleported them? Abra reached out his hand and started to open his eyes, which glowed light purple, sclera, iris and pupil. A purple aura surrounded the Polywag and it thrashed in pain before falling unconscious onto the ground.

"Nice!" I heard Poison say from where ever he was.

"Igglybuff, return!" Rae called, and several of the battling Pokemon looked over to see what had happened. Igglybuff lay fainted on the ground as she was recalled and Azurill and Cleffa moved closer to each other, exchanging a worried look.

Within minutes, they defeated all of the grunt's Pokemon, most of that time spent engaging in whack-a-mole with the Diglett until Azurill got frustrated and started unleashing Water Guns into the holes he made.

The look on the grunt's faces was priceless. "W-we lost? Alright, you can keep going! Just leave us alone!" The middle grunt threw done some Poké on the ground in attempt to distract us from going after them. We just silently watched them go until they were out of view. Then Sam bent down to pick up the money.

"Huh? Only 200 Poké?" Sam said. "I guess crime doesn't pay well…"

"Let's keep going, there's obviously something going on here that they don't want us to see." Kurt pointed out.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? We could go back to town and get Officer Jenny's help." Rae reasoned. She only had three Pokemon at the moment.

_…__Where had Oddish been in the battle?_ I looked around. It was difficult to find an Oddish among other plants, but finally I located her. _You're kidding me._

Oddish was lying out in the sun with not a scratch on her. She hadn't participated in the battle at all. Rae had noticed too but hadn't been able to do anything about it. Oddish really was a stubborn Pokémon.

"We can't go back for back up, it would take days and they'd have plenty of time to clear out by then!" Sam urged them. "And, if it's bad, we can get out and report it in the next city."

"Let's go for it!" I cheered on my team.

"If Nova wants to do it, I guess I'll do it too," Poison decided.

"I'm never against bashing heads." Gold grinned.

"…I hope that they aren't too strong," Missile pondered, "but even if they are…I'll do all I can."

"That's awesome, you're so cool, Miss!" Azurill laughed, pulling on his wing.

"There are several reasons why Miss isn't a good nickname for Missile, Squirt." I told her sternly.

"Missile, can you scout from the air? To see what they're doing? We're going to follow as quietly as we can." Sam asked. Missile flew away to check.

Quickly, the grassy plains melted into rock quarry and the sharp pings of mining struck my ears. I pulled them back uncomfortably and moved closer to Gold.

"This is the same as last time but I don't hear a drill. I'm worried that they'll be a lot more grunts here too though." I whispered.

Gold looked at me. "We weren't strong enough to battle them last time. But that was weeks ago and we're stronger now. And we have back-up. We won't lose so easily this time."

I smiled. "Right."

Sam, Kurt and Rae crouched down in some bushes right off of a cliff face. It was the opening to the rock quarry.

"Oh God," Rae shifted to get a better view. "There's too many of them." I hated to think it, but Rae was right. Milling around the rock quarry was over a dozen Team Magna members. The two from last time were there—Maylin in her kimono and Gil wearing a white suit which was dusty on his pant legs, searching through the mined rocks,lifting them up and appraising them before throwing them down again. It was apparent they weren't finding what they were looking for. A large drill lay in disuse on the side, a man behind the wheel trying to coax it back to life while the engine merely gurgled. Drilbur walked in and out of thick cracks in the cliff carrying more rocks. A menacing Excadrill carved chunks of the wall with his long, powerful claws. Several Geodude helped move the broken earth, they were strong looking Pokémon and I really didn't want to be on the receiving end of a Rock Throw. The sheer amount of foes sent shivers down Nova's spine.

"Rae's right, we can't fight them like this." I admitted reluctantly, nudging Sam's leg a little. He had a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face.

Kurt put a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Dude, there's no way…" Sam's hand went to the spot in his jacket he carried his badge case and he tightened his hand over it.

"I—" He started. A Nidoran sauntered over to Maylin and she leaned down to it. Nidoran looked directly at us with a piercing gaze and Maylin's eyes sharpened.

"Intruders!" Maylin yelled. Before we knew what was happening, blurs ran up the slope and behind us. Knowing we had been caught, Rae, Sam and Kurt stood up, hands slightly raised in surrender. The Raticate behind us pushed forward, driving us down the slope and into the center of the quarry in front of Maylin and Gil.

The grunts that had been mining turned to stare with smug faces. "Those nosy trainers are gonna get it," I heard one whisper. I growled at him but he was barely intimidated at all.

"What are Team Magna doing here?" Sam asked.

"Getting the means to control the world!" Gil retorted, pulling on the cuffs of his suit.

"Gil, don't give the interlopers any information." She turned to us. "What are you doing here?" Maylin demanded.

Rae and Kurt stood up as well. "Well, I guess we're here to make sure no one takes over the world." Kurt shrugged, releasing Abra.

"You want to fight?" Gil smiled.

"We can't just let you win. And we know what might happen if we surrender." Sam explained. "Let's go, everybody!" Poison tensed behind me and I pawed the ground as I heard Rae release her team, except for Igglybuff who had fainted.

"Defeat them!" Maylin and Gil threw their Pokéballs. Paras, Froakie, Machop, Magby and Electrike appeared. Maylin turned to the grunts. "Call out your Pokémon but keep working!" Immediately, a dozen more Pokémon that had not been helping in the excavation were released—Pokémon like Spearow, Butterfree, Ekans, Breloom and Tentacool. The miners continued to mine and Maylin and Gil searched through the rocks.

Pokémon surrounded them on every side and the magnitude to the situation fully bore down on me. If we lost, Team Magna would capture us or kill us where we stood for knowing too much. I was scared and didn't know if we could win. Our team had always come out on top when we worked together…but this was something else entirely. I tried to slow down my racing pulse as waves of hopelessness crashed down on me. There were about twenty-five or thirty Pokémon surrounding our team of eight Pokémon.

"Aiming for the grunt's Pokemon first might be best. To cut down their numbers." Cleffa squeaked.

"I think you're right, Cleffa." Gold said. "But we're gonna have to distract Gil and Maylin's Pokémon somehow."

Abra whose head had lolled to the side as he slept standing up, slowly came back up.

_Can you hear me?_

Everyone turned to face Abra in surprise. His voice had just come through all the minds of the Pokémon. Looking at his face, it didn't look like much was going on with him mentally. I waved a paw in front of his face, which was ignored.

_It looks like you can. Missile and I will be able to hold back the six stronger Pokémon. We can buy you about five minutes._

"You can talk?" I had to ask.

_I never felt the need to before, is that strange?_

I was going to tell him that yes it was but refocused on what was going on in front of us. "Alright, thanks for buying us some time. We'll take as many out as possible."

The offending Pokémon drew closer to us, acting like a trigger for our counter-attack. Without warning, Gold lashed out a Raticate, hitting it hard enough to break off part of the rodent's tooth. Acting on instinct, I bit the scaly skin of an Ekans that thrashed under her. It was impertinent that none of us get injured or exhausted before we faced the second wave of Pokémon. I was confident that the Ekans was under-leveled for a battle against me. He swiveled his head to glare at me and I felt my limbs lock up, I looked away quickly enough to avoid paralysis.

"That's not gonna work on me, pal." I growled, getting a secure grip on the snake's side. I realized that even though Ekans was several times longer than her, he was about my weight. I hoisted him into the air near the base of his neck and slammed him down hard on the rocky ground.

I ran over to Sam's who was fending off a Raticate with a stick and tackled it so it retreated a little way. I looked at Sam expectantly.

"Alright Nova, gimme your best! Show 'em you're the strongest Pokémon around!"

"Of course!" I nodded. I sprinted straight at the Raticate and at the last moment, vaulted over its snapping teeth. I dove for the tail, biting the base of its tail with all my strength. The action had the desired effect as the Raticate struggled desperately, I released him, delivering a hasty blow to the back of his head.

The rate I was fighting was impressive but unmaintainable. I was already getting tired.

Tentacool had its two tentacles tightening around Gold's neck. He struggled weakly, flinched as if he were constantly taking damage. A wrap and poison combination. If someone didn't intervene soon, Gold would faint. My path was blocked by two Breloom. Their fighting-type advantage would make this battle almost impossible. I looked to Sam for instructions but he was directing Poison, who had steeped into Gold's battle. Their combined strength as well as Poison's natural poison immunity was pushing the Tentacool back.

Instead, I made eye-contact with Rae whose sharp eyes quickly appraised the situation and what must have been a desperate look in my eyes.

"Azurill! Cleffa!" Rae yelled, immediately, they abandoned their fight with a Sparrow and ran up to me. "Pull the focus!" Rae ordered. Azurill and Cleffa began firing weaker but quick attacks and evading damaging blows.

"Rae's buying you time! Please take out the others!" Cleffa said. I nodded and ran over, quickly finishing off the weakened Spearow.

In the sky, Missile dodged elemental attacks and fired off quick pin needles and poison stings, keeping the six Pokémon from getting too close. Abra teleported around using confusion. They were clearly on their last legs.

Panting, I fainted another Raticate, this time having taken some damage. Lightning crackled above and something landed in a heap on the ground.

"Missile!" Sam yelled. The bee Pokémon weakly tried to pull himself up but fell back down. He recalled him immediately when the Electrike charged up another move. Abra, distracted, didn't teleport fast enough to avoid being caught by the throat by Machop an being punched in the face.

"Abra, return! You did great." A red light enveloped the limp Abra and brought him back into his Pokéball.

"This isn't good," Poison moaned as we backed up into a tighter circle as we were surrounded again. This time by Maylin and Gil's Pokémon, the three Breloom, a Spearow, Drilbur and Geodude.

The large Excadrill paused from destroying the wall, as if noticing us for the first time. He stared at us with coal eyes and released a terrifying tumbling roar. Slowly, he approached. He was huge.

Beside me, Gold had recovered from the poison but was cradling his arm, Nidoran was breathing very heavily and Rae had an injured Azurill in her arms. We didn't stand a chance. Even in this single battle, I had grown stronger but my paws were weary with hopelessness and I knew it wasn't enough.

"Hey Sammy, need a hand?"

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><p><strong>Dun dun dun dun! Who is it? Hint: You've met them. <strong>

**Please review and watch for the chapter that'll be up later this week!**


	34. Flames of Retribution

**Here's the new chapter! If I separated this story into books, this one would be the last chapter of the first book!**

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><p>"Hey Sammy, need a hand?"<p>

I looked up in surprise. Standing on the edge of the cliff above them was the man with spiky hair who Sam had chased in the forest shortly after our journey had started.

Sam's grimace changed into an easy grin. "Long time no see, Dane."

"Looks like you got yourself into a spot of trouble, huh?" The boy said. He had an accent that I hadn't heard before. He jumped off the edge and slid down the steep slope on his heels before easily walking towards us. "I had hoped you could take care of yourself, mate."

"Stay where you are!" Maylin warned, thrusting out her hand warningly. Dane fixed his startling green eyes on her.

"Sorry but I'm afraid I'm going to join the battle too. Sammy here looks like he's a bit outnumbered." He tossed up four Pokéballs. A Bulbasaur, Pidgey, a strange leafy Pokémon that stood on two legs and a Ponyta appeared. The Ponyta reared up and nickered and to my surprise, Dane pat the Ponyta's neck, his hand fazing right through the fire without any sign of being burned. "These two will be our next challengers, Kasta." Kasta snorted flames in excitement. "Listen up team, those guys," he pointed towards us, "aren't the enemy. Sam, try not to get in the way."

Sam's eyes flashed in excitement. "We're not gonna get in the way, we'll be the one's to beat them!"

'Vee!' I agreed. I didn't know why the weird kid had run away when we'd chased him but I was absolutely sure I wasn't gonna be up-staged by the guy, especially when I'd been here fighting the whole time.

Dane rolled his eyes. "Kasta, use Flame Wheel!" The Ponyta charged in a beautiful wheel of fire, throwing back the female Nidoran with enough force that she hit the quarry wall next to one of the miners. She got back to her feet slowly and chittered furiously.

Reinvigorated by the back up, I channeled my second wind towards the Froakie who had been staring at me unblinkingly for the past minute. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Oddish, who despite being asked to fight at the beginning of the battle, bore no scratches or injuries. She didn't even look tired. Pushing down my irritation, I ran at Oddish and picked her up by the base of her leaves dragging her toward Froakie. If the complacent little twerp wasn't going to join the fight herself, I'd make her.

Dodging a stream of fire from Magby, I ran straight past Froakie and heard the creature hop after us."Run." I told Oddish, dropping her on the ground. She had no other choice but to flee. When we had run far away that I felt comfortable with enough room to dodge, I turned on a dime and held out my tail so Oddish ran into it.

"Do something," I whispered. After a second of battle of wills, small green orbs appeared from Froakie's skin and was absorbed by Oddish.

I_f Oddish could regain energy like that, _I realized,_ then maybe she had been fighting and had just been regaining energy from her foes._ I flinched as my inattentiveness allowed Froakie's Water Pulse to get a direct hit.

Froakie's tongue wrapped around my paw, making me fall onto the ground. I raised my other paw and scratched his tongue, causing him to retract it. "Come on, Oddish! Use another attack!" I shot a Swift attack at Froakie but they were cancelled out by his Bubble attack.

"Shut up! You're so bossy!" Oddish grunted. Small green orbs flew towards Oddish again. "But I'll take his energy, for myself, of course!"

I sighed in exasperation. It wasn't much but at least she'd fight. I took the opportunity to tackle him and bite his side. Froakie struggled weakly and lost consciousness.

I took a deep breath and head back to the others, not sure if Oddish followed.

I ran to join Poison and Gold. "Froakie's taken care of."

Gold nodded. "So's Machop, Nidoran and Electrike. And those Drilbur."

"Cleffa fainted too." Poison called from where he was firing projectiles at Paras. "These guys are strong."

"The loud guy's Pokémon are facing the Excadrill. So far, they're struggling." Gold added, ducking as a Spearow swooped down with its talons. I fired a Shadow Ball at it and it crashed into the ground. "Thanks."

"Those Breloom are gonna be a problem—I can't fight them." I observed.

"I found it!" Maylin and Gil's Pokémon stopped fighting, causing everyone else to stop and look at Maylin. She stood a black stone half the size of her palm. "I found the power of the Earth!" Bulbasaur, who was behind Maylin shot out a vine at the stone knocking it out of her hand. It was a good move, whatever it was, if she wanted it so badly, it was probably in our best interest she didn't get it. The stone flew in an arc approaching us. Gold's eyes widened and ran to grab the stone, catching it perfectly in his paws. The three Breloom ran to catch up with him. I ran in the opposite direction of Gold, who stood on tiptoe holding the stone. "I don't know what this is but you aren't gonna get it!" He growled.

"Here!" I called. Usually, Gold wouldn't throw to me because I didn't have hands but this time he did.

"You'd better frickin' catch this, Rusty!" I ran faster, trying to catch up to it. It looked like it was going to fall into the stream flowing through the quarry. I jumped over the stream, catching the stone in my mouth in mid-air. When I landed on the other side of the bank as a strange sensation came over me.

"Nova! Throw it here!" Gold called. He had been able to break away from the Pokémon surrounding him.

I felt this strange ripple of tension run through me. I dropped it to the ground. It wasn't just black, I realized, it had bright blue veins through the core of the stone. A strange sense of vertigo ran through me and suddenly, the ground felt like it was getting further away. Everything was starting to get brighter, not from the sun but from the back of my eyes. I looked back at Gold and Poison who were staring as the brightness increased. It wasn't just them, everyone had paused and was looking at me. My muscles tensed then relaxed again, feeling more powerful. I felt stretched and my hair follicles burned…my fur was growing out on my collar.

Instantly, I realized what was happening. I had never been anything but an Eevee. I stared at the stone as best as I could because the light, which I realized was emitting from me made it nearly impossible to see. It wasn't any type of evolution stone. I had no idea how this was happening. With one final surge, my legs lengthened and chest broadened my tail and tuft on my head grew bushier. I blinked as the light receded and my eyes registered colors that seemed stronger than before. My nose picked up the scents of my foes and friends. The blue veins of the stone at my paws faded and the rock became cold.

"What just happened?" I asked, distantly registering my deeper voice. I turned around to see a bushy yellow tail. A strong buzz of energy ran through me as I saw Gold, Poison and Sam run up to me. My eye level was now just above Gold's. And when Sam crouched down to hug me, my head nearly reached his shoulder. _This body, it should feel so foreign,_ I thought, but instead it felt like the next step in getting stronger. Poison jumped up and down excitedly. While Poison had been at least half a foot taller than me as an Eevee, the tips of his ears only just reached my eyes. I licked Sam's face and nuzzled Poison and walked up to Gold so we were chest to chest while he pat my shoulder affectionately.

"Rusty fits you even more now," Gold laughed. "How's it feel, Flareon?"

It felt great, especially hearing the word spoken out loud like that.

Kasta the Ponyta trotted up to us as Gold and I pulled back. He tentatively sniffed me. The tips of my ears fell short a few inches short of Kasta's full height . "A fire-type, good choice," he rumbled happily before turning his attention to the stone. "That isn't a Fire Stone, did you evolve just by touching it? That doesn't make sense." His eyes narrowed and his ear twitched in irritation.

Then the voice of Maylin cut through the moment like a Scyther blade through an apple. "How did that Eevee evolve into a Flareon? That isn't possible!" She looked scared. "Magby! Paras! Everyone! Attack! Bring me that stone! And the Flareon!"

I made eye contact with Magby. It was as if I could register her inferno-like temperature from where I was across the quarry and it interested me. My ears twitched.

"I guess the battle's not over yet!" I ran straight towards Magby, jumping over the stream much easier than when I had while I was still an Eevee. It was slightly difficult adjusting to a taller height—I was nearly three times my previous size—but the stilt-like sensation faded quickly as I charged at Magby, who fired off an Ember that should have sent me scrabbling backwards. Instead, the insulating fur on my chest protected me from the attack and I carried out a strong Tackle using the weight of my new form. I lowered my head and swung upwards, hitting him in the stomach with enough force to send him to the ground with no resistance. He picked himself up and I charged up a Shadow Ball, which seemed to intensify right before I shot it at her. My power had surged when I had evolved. The attack hit him in the side but he still fell to the ground unconscious. The space had erupted into battles again.

I saw the three Breloom headed towards the strange leafy walking Pokémon identified as Levanny. A moment of inspiration hit me. Not only has I now longer weak to their fighting-type, I was strong against their grass-typing.

"Hey mushroom-faces!" I taunted. One by one the three Breloom realized I was talking to them. "Yeah, stoner trio, I'm talking to you!" I met them half way, ready to blow them away with a stunning fire attack. I charged up my energy but instead of a vortex of swirling hell-fire, I produced a small steam of smoke. Taken back, I only just managed to roll out of the way of a Double Kick.

_Not a problem,_ I thought. _Plenty of other ways to skin a Skitty_. I nailed one with a Quick Attack, and wheeled around to another with a Shadow Ball. I saw the same small green orbs leave my body and be absorbed into one of the Breloom but it barely had any effect at all. I lashed out, scratching one across the stomach.

A karate chop hit me in the head, making everything fuzzy for a second but I had the presence of mind to twist around and latch my teeth around the Breloom's arm, pulling it off balance and knocking it into one of its teammates. Then I blasted them both with a Shadow Ball. The other Breloom went to punch me but pulled its punch short and whipped around striking me in the side with its heavy tail.

I exhaled heavily and jumped back, waiting for the pain to pass from my ribs. At least my earlier injuries had been healed when I had evolved. I heard footsteps towards me. It was Kasta the Ponyta.

"Need some help?"

"No thanks." I told him. I had reached my quota for being saved today and Kasta and his owner were a little too prideful. I'd rather take a few more blows than except help from someone who might be one of Sam's biggest rivals.

"You just evolved, you can't be used to your new form yet. Let me help out, one fire-type to another."

"Alright, fine." I conceded. We didn't have time to be arguing. Kasta was quick to wheel around and smack a Breloom on the side of its head with his hooves. I almost winced at the sound. It took a second, but the Breloom pulled itself up. My Swift knocked it back onto the ground permanently.

"These last two shouldn't be two hard." I said, preparing to run at them. The ground shook underneath them. "What's that?" I asked, looking around.

"The other Pokémon were knocked out, everyone else is battling Excadrill."

"That behemoth?" I raised my eyebrows. "They've got their paws full."

I charged at slipped around a Breloom using my foreleg to knock it off balance and biting it in the shoulder until it cried out. I let go as its eyes unfocused a little. A wave of fire from Kasta grilled the final Breloom.

We looked at the battle against the Excadrill just in time to see Poison and Pidgey deliver a final attack on it.

Maylin and Gil recalled all their Pokémon, as did the grunts. "Retreat!" Maylin yelled. The team had retreatedup the crest of the hill before the exhausted humans and Pokémon thought to give chase.

"Right, so what now?" Sam panted. He was a little scratched up, having fought a few Pokémon off himself.

"I suppose finding out what the rock they wanted so bad was. And how it evolved your Eevee." Dane suggested.

"Yeah," Sam said. He stopped short. "Guys, it's not here."

"What?"

"It's not here, they must have taken it!"

"Are you serious?" Dane let out a frustrated sigh and kneading his forehead. "After all that work?"

Rae walked over to Sam. "Sam, who is this guy? I grateful for his help but why did he help us?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. This is Dane, he's kind of a jerk but he was a good friend in Pallet."

"Nice to meet you." Dane said, recalling his Pokémon, unconcerned at his introduction. "Gotta go."

"You're just gonna leave again, you nomad weirdo?" Sam asked in disbelief.

Dane thought about it for a second. "Yep. See you later."

Sam sighed and looked at me. "He's always like that. He's not very social. But it looks like he got a pretty tough team." He hugged me again. "I can't believe you evolved, Nova! You're so strong now!" I stretched up and laying my paws and head on his shoulders.

"Hey Sam, I don't think it's a good idea for us to keep going towards Lavender Town like this. You heard those grunts earlier. They made it sound like we were still a week away and I really want to get Abra some proper treatment…"

Sam sighed, standing up again. "You're right. We should go back."

Rae nodded. "Sam, Kurt, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to stay in Vermillion for a little while. You guys can go ahead without me but Officer Jenny gave me a great offer to train me and my team for a week or two. Before I thought that I didn't need it…but today I realized that we need to get much stronger…"

Sam looked surprised and a little sad. "Yeah that's fine. Kurt and I will find something to do then. We wouldn't just leave you."

"Actually," Kurt started excited. "If you're gonna take a little break, Rae, there's somewhere I want to go too! There's gonna be this big Adventure Convention in Cerulean in five days and I really wanted to go. Sam, you can come with me and we can you just meet Rae back in the Vermillion after a week or so."

"Sounds great, Kurt!" Sam agreed.

* * *

><p>Nova and the others were all relaxing in the Pokémon Center three days after the battle. They had just gotten there hours before. Suddenly, one of the computers on the side of the room started to ring. Sam's Pokédex pinged and he pulled it out.<p>

"Incoming call. Incoming call. Please answer the nearest video phone promptly," it said in it's robotic voice. Sam eased his sleeping Flareon of his lap and made his way over to the chair. All his Pokémon were exhausted and for good reason. Sam picked up the phone and the monitor came to life.

"Sam?"

"Professor Oak?"

* * *

><p><strong>END OF BOOK ONE-Please review!<strong>

**!: I was recently flamed by someone explaining in over a 1,000 words how the first chapter sucked. PLEASE give me your honest opinion or what I could do do improve the story because I do want to keep writing it if people want to read it!**


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